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DUKE 
UNIVERSITY 


LIBRARY 


ey ae 


. "4 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2023 with funding from 
Duke University Libraries 


ub 


we: 


ANNUAL REPORT 


OF THE 


AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 


THE YEAR 1918 


IN TWO VOLUMES 
VOL. Il 
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN 


EDITED BY JOHN C. FITZPATRICK 


53°56 8 


j WASHINGTON 
J GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 
1920 


WAsHINGTON, 

To the Executive Council of the American Histon 
GrntTLEMEN: In recommending to you for p 
biography of Martin Van Buren, the Histori 
mission begs leave to acknowledge the public 
Thompson Van Buren, of Fishkill, N. Y., who 
document in the Library of Congress, and the « 
of the Library, which offers a typewritten co 
with an introduction and notes prepared by a 

Very respectfully yours, 


2 


aS 


Yi: 


PREFATORY NOTE. eA 

The autobiography of Martin Van Buren was presented to the 
Library of Congress by Mrs. Smith Thompson Van Buren, of Fish- 
kill, New York, in 1905. At the same time the Van Buren Papers 
were presented to the Library by Mrs. Smith Thompson Van Buren 
and Dr. and Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish Morris, of New York City. A 
Calendar of the Papers was published by the Library in 1910. 

The Autobiography is the manuscript copy, in seven folio vol- 
umes (1247 pages), made by Smith Thompson Van Buren, the son 
and literary executor of the President, from Van Buren’s original 
draft. Portions of Volumes VI and VII are in another hand, and 
the last fifteen pages of the manuscript have many changes and 
corrections by Van Buren himself. 

The first two hundred and fifty-nine pages of this copy were 
edited by Mr. Worthington C. Ford, formerly Chief of the Manu- 
script Division, Library of Congress. The lettered footnotes are 
Van Buren’s own; the chapter divisions and numbered notes are 
the editor’s. j 

The Autobiography is written with engaging frankness, and the 
insight it affords to the mental processes of a master politician is 
deeply interesting. Van Buren’s desire to be scrupulously fair in 
his estimates is evident, and, if he did not always succeed, his fail- 
ures are not discreditable. Though the Autobiography does not 
compel the revision of established historical judgments, it yet pre- 
sents authority for much in our political history hitherto somewhat 
conjectural and records political motives and activities of the period 
in an illuminating and suggestive manner. 

In analyzing men and measures, Van Buren all unconsciously 
paints a picture of himself and it is a truthful and worthy portrait. 
It is impossible to read the Autobiography through without greatly 
regretting that it was not carried beyond the point it reaches. 

As a contribution to the political history of the United States, its 
presentation of facts is too valuable to be ignored safely by the 
conscientious investigator. 

J. C. Frrzparricr, 
Assistant Chief, Manuscript Division. 
Library of Congress. 
a 3 


FOURTEENTH REPORT OF THE HISTORICAL MANUSCRIPTS 
COMMISSION 


e 
JuNE 4, 1919 


JUSTIN H. SMITH, Chairman 


DICE R. ANDERSON GAILLARD HUNT 
Mrs. AMOS G. DRAPER CHARLES H. LINCOLN 
LOGAN ESAREY MILO M. QUAIFE 


THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN 
Edited by JOHN C. FITZPATRICK 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 


CHAPTER I. 


Vitis FALANcoLa, 
Sorrento, June 21, 1854. 

© At the age of seventy one, and in a foreign land, I commence a sketch 
of the principal events of my life. I enter upon this work in the hope 
of being yet able to redeem promises exacted from me by friends on 
whose judgments and sagacity I have been accustomed to rely. I 
need not now speak of the extent to which an earlier compliance 
with their wishes has been prevented by an unaffected diffidence to 
assume that the scenes, of which they desire to perpetuate the mem- 
ory, will be found to possess sufficient interest to justify such a no- 
tice. That their opinions in regard to that question have not been 
_ biased by the partiality of their ardent friendship is hardly to be 
supposed, yet it ought not, perhaps, to surprise any that they should 
have thought that not a few of our contemporaries and successors 
would be interested, and, possibly, the young men of the country 
benefited, by a true and frank account of the rise and progress of 
one, who, without the aid of powerful family connextions, and with 
but few of the adventitious facilities for the acquisition of political 
power had been elevated by his Countrymen to a succession of official 
trusts, not exceeded, perhaps, either in number, in ‘dignity or in re- 
sponsibility by any that have ever been committed to the hands of 
one man—consisting of the respective offices of Surrogate of his 
County, State Senator, Attorney General of the State of New York, 
Regent of the University, Member of a Convention to revise the 
Constitution of the State, Governor of the State, Senator in Con- 
gress for two terms, Secretary of State of the United States, Minis- 
ter to England, Vice President, and President of the United States. 

As it is not improbable that much of the solicitude manifested 
by my friends, in connection with this work, has grown out of 
their feelings and opinions in regard to transactions of 1840°and 
1844, in which my interests were supposed to be deeply involved, 
it may not be amiss that I should say a few words on those sub- 
jects in advance. 


° MS. Book I, p. 1. . 


8 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 2 


The Presidential Canvass of 1840, and its attending occurrences, 
are at this moment, without reasonable doubt, subjects of regret 
with ninety-nine hundredths of the sober minded and well in- 
formed people of the United States. No one of that number can 
now hesitate in believing that the scenes thro’ which the Country 
passed in that great political whirlwind were discreditable to our 
Institutions and could not fail, if often repeated, to lead to their 
subversion. Indeed nothing could have better served to justify 
and strengthen our reliance upon the sober second-thought of our 
People, than the sense so widely entertained of those transactions 
as soon as the passions that produced them had subsided, and the 
fact that no attempt has been since made to revive them. It is the 
duty of every sincere friend to those Institutions to regard with 
forbearance whatever took place at a period & under circumstances 
to so great a degree unfavorable to the diffusion of truth & to a 
correct appreciation of public measures. 

The defeat of my nomination for re-election in 1844, after it 
had. been demanded by Constituencies represented by out of 
(the whole number of Electors of President and Vice Presi- 
dent) was the result of an intrigue that had its origin exclusively 
in the Presidential aspirations of individuals, aided at its inception 
by prejudices, unjust I hope, but such as the long continued exercise 
of political power seldom, if ever, fails to generate, and only 
finally made successful by the co-operation of the slave power, 
subsequently & adroitly brought to the assistance of designs al- 
ready matured. 

Upon both of these topicks I shall of course have more to say 
hereafter. For the present, it is sufficient to declare, as I do with 
entire sincerity that I have never entertained the thought that a 
majority of the People designed to deal unjustly with me on either 
occasion. Errors were doubtless committed on all sides, delusions 
set on foot which there was not time to dissipate and means, de- 
signed for good ends, perverted to bad purposes. But neither of 
these events, important as they were have ever planted in my breast 
a single root of bitterness against the People at large, and it affords 
me equal satisfaction to say that the reconciling influence of Time, 
with the consciousness that I had already enjoyed a larger share 
of popular favor than I could think myself entitled to, have brought 
me to look with complacency, at least, upon the conduct of the in- 
dividual actors in those stirring scenes. 

My feelings towards a People, with whom I have had so many 
and such interesting relations are consequently, now, & I trust will 
continue to be those of gratitude and respect. What I may write 
will not therefore proceed, as is often the case with those whose 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 9 


public career has been abruptly closed, from a wounded spirit, seek- 
ing self-vindication, but will, on the contrary be under the control 
of a judgment which satisfies me that I ought to be, as my feelings 
lead me to be, at peace with all the world. I have besides imbibed a 
large share of Mr. Jefferson’s repugnance to “ provings & fendings 
of personal character.” So strong has this feeling been that it has 
induced me, over and over again, to wait for the tardy but certain 
effects of time to vindicate me from unjust, censure, when I had 
the means at my command for the prompt & effectual refutation. 

After abandoning a direct attempt to go on with this work, 
commenced more than a year ago, I employed some of my leisure 
moments in the collection of materials. These from the irresolu- 
tion under which I laboured did not seem to promise results of 
much value, beyond a temporary relief from the self reproach which 
was caused by past neglect. Hoping to arrive at a better mood on 
the course of my travels, I have brought these with me & to them 
has fortunately been added a complete analysis of the Political 
History of New York by Judge Hammond, made for me by my | 
much beloved & lamented son Martin, who had, as I find from his 
papers, with the affectionate forethought that characterized him, 
devoted much of °his time to similar occupations in anticipation of 
my possible wants & wishes. This supplies me with the chrono- 
logical order of early events, which I have found to be, at this 
distance from my papers, an indispensable requisite. 

With these scanty preparations, but under the stimulus imparted 
by high health, the exhilaration of this beautiful situation and 
salubrious climate in the mountains of Sorrento, and the thought- 
stirring vicinage of Vesuvius, the promontory of Misenum, the 
classic Bay of Baiae, the island of Capri, and the exhumed cities 
of Pompeii and Herculaneum, I have once more determined to 
overcome that disinclination to mental efforts which has thro’ life 
been my besetting infirmity, and to enter with spirit upon the ac- 
complishment of a task, the performance of which I have hitherto 
had too much reason to regard with feelings of despair. 

My family was from Holland, without a single intermarriage 
with one of different extraction from the time of the arrival of the 
first emigrant to that of the marriage of my eldest son, embracing a 
period of over two centuries and including six generations.* I spent 
a few weeks in Holland, after the abrupt ules of my br ief mission 
to England in 1832, and was very kindly received by the King, 
William I. He pao me that a gentleman of my name was at 


ee 


SMS: Ep. 5: 

1The record of the family of Martin Van Buren has been traced by Frank J. Conkling, 
who published it in the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, vol. xxviii, pp. 
121 and 207.—W. C. F. 


10 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


one time Minister of Foreign Affairs under one of his ancestors; 
that the name was derived from the town of Buren, in the neigh- 
bourhood of Utrecht,! which was formerly an Earldom, and from 
which by the marriage of one of his forefathers, he derived one of 
his present titles—that of Count Buren. Of the fact which he sug- 
gested that my family was from the same stock I have neither knowl- 
edge or belief, or, I may add concern, nor do I feel any temptation 
to claim family relationship with a branch of the Van Burens of 
Holland as the family is literally extinct, even though its head had 
the honor of connecting her name with that of Nassau.* 
All I know of my ancestors commences with the first emigrant 
from Holland who came over in 1633, and settled in what is now 
called Rensselaer County in the State of New York. His son, 
[Marten], my great Grandfather, moved to Kinderhook and set- 
tled on lands conveyed to him in 1669, by a Deed in my possession, 
-given pursuant to his father’s will by Derick Wessels, of Albany, 
a distinguished man in his day, as his father’s part of a patent 
‘granted nominally to Wessels, but for the benefit of his co-pro- 
prietors.2. He and his son Martin and grand-son Abraham (my 
father) lived and died—the latter at the advanced age of 82—on 
the lands thus acquired. They were all farmers, cultivating the 
soil themselves for a livelihood, holding respectable positions im 
society and sustaining throughout unblemished characters. My 
mother’s maiden name was Goes,’ a name also favorably known in 
Dutch annals, and she was regarded by al! who knew her as liber- 
ally endowed with the qualities & virtues that adorn the female 
character. My father was an unassuming amiable man who was 
never known to have an enemy. Utterly devoid of the spirit of 


1The village of Buren is in the Province of Gelderland.—_wW. C. F. ‘ 

a Finding it in my way on my second visit to Holland in 1854, I paid a visit to the 
ancient town of Buren. I found it a pleasant little place containing a population of 
about seven hundred souls. On inquiry I found that there were yet three of the name 
left & I sent for the eldest. He took me to the place where Castle Buren, as represented 
on the map, had stood, and showed the ground yet bearing traces of a-fortified place & of 
its appropriate environs. He pointed out the lands & houses which had belonged to 
the Earldom, but which had all been sold by the French during their dominion in Hol- 
land, and were now occupied, doubtless to their great improvement, by the owners of 
the soil. The,grounds belonging to the Castle were purchased & are now owned by the 
Corporation. 'The family had become extinct & their bones had been within a year, 
for reasons he assigned, removed from a previous place of interment and reburied within 
a small yard near the spot where the Castle stood, surrounded by an evergreen hedge, 
and shaded by a weeping willow in the centre, to the expense of which, he said, the King 
had coniributed liberally. A spot had been reserved for my guide, not he said, as a 
relation, but as the oldest*of the name in the town. 

2Cornelis Maessen, the first of the line, sailed for America in the vessel Renssa- 
laerswyck in the summer of 1631, bringing his wife, Catalyntje Martense, and a son, 
Marten. They settled on the, Van Renssalaer property at a place called Papsknee, on the 
east side of the Hudson River, near Greenbush. A generation appears to have been 
omitted in this account, for the son of Maessen, Marten, did not remove to Kinderhook. 
The son of Marten, Pieter Martense, removed to that place, and his son, Marten, was 
the grandfather of the President.—W. C. F. 

8 Maria Goes [Hoes] widow of Johannes Van Alen.—W. C. F. 


Qo ee 


| AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 11 
} 


accumulation, his property, originally moderate, was gradually re- 
duced until he could but illy afford to bestow the necessary means 
upon the education of his children. My advantages, in that re- 
spect, were therefore limited to those afforded by the village academy 
& I was at a very early age (I believe not more than fifteen or 
sixteen), placed in a lawyers office where I remained for several 
years. It has thro’ life been to me a source of regret that I had not 
pursued the course so often successfully adopted by our New Eng- 
land young men under like circumstances,—that is to spend a por- 
tion.of their time in teaching the lower branches of learning, and, 
with the means thus obtained, to acquire access for themselves to 
the highest. 

My mind might have lost a portion of its vivacity, in the plodding 
habits formed by such a course, but it could not have failed to acquire 
in the elements of strength supplied by a good education much 
more than it lost. In place of the studies by which I would thus 
have given employment to an uncommonly active mind I adopted 
at a very early age the practice of appearing as Counsel before 
Arbitrators and inferior tribunals and my success was such as 
to give rise to exaggerated impressions that were brought before 
the public in the course of my after political career. Altho’ my 
mind was in this way severely and usefully disciplined for the 
examination and discussion of facts, & the practice in that respect 
was eminently useful, yet the tendency of the course of training was 


adverse to deep study, and gave an early direction and character 


to my reading that I was never able to change. Instead of laying 
up stores of useful knowledge, I read for amusement and trusted 
to my facility for acquiring necessary information when occasions 
for its use presented themselves. I was born with a sanguine tem- 
perament, the mental features of which as described by Dr. Mayo 
(the well known English Surgeon and author) “are a disposition 
ardent, hasty and impetuous; the spirits high and buoyant, a ca- 
pacity for intellectual exertions of the strongest kind or highest 
flight, but often capricious and ill sustained,” in contradistinction 
from those of the “mixed or equal temperament” which is, he says, 
“well disposed towards great and continually renewed exertions.” 
I feel free to say that I have never been able to overcome the tend- 
encies ascribed to the former. ; 

How often have I felt the necessity of a regular course of reading 
to enable me to maintain the reputation, 1 had acquired and to sus- 
tain me in my conflicts with able and better educated men, and re- 
solved to enter upon it without further delay! But ever in a whirl 
of excitement, and absorbed by the cares attached to the new public 
stations to which I was successively elevated I was sure to fall back, 


12 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


after a few spasmodic efforts, to my old habit of reading light 
matters° to relieve the mind and to raise it out of the ruts in which 
long thinking on one class of subjects is so apt to sink it, leaving the 
weightier matters of the law, as well as those that appertained to 
public affairs to the period when it became indispensable to grapple 
with them. I am now amazed that, with such disadvantages I should 
have been able to pass through such contests as it has been my lot to 
encounter with so few discomfitures. Much adroitness was often 
necessary to avoid appearing in debate until I had been able to 
make myself master of the subject under discussion. That remark- 
able man John Randolph, in one of his morbid moods, wrote a series 
of letters to General Jackson in which he assailed Mr. Calhoun with ~ 
great severity and at the same time laboured to divert the General 
from a purpose he attributed to him—that of making me his suc- 
cessor. These General Jackson, as was his habit in regard to all 
private letters designed to sow tares between us, sent to me for my 
perusal: Among many curious and characteristic observations in re- 
gard to myself he said that in his long experience in public life he 
had scarcely ever met with a single prominent man less informed 
than myself upon great questions when they were first pre- 
sented, or who understood them better when I came to their 
discussion. I remember well the General’s hearty laugh when he 
heard me subscribe to the justice of the description. Few can have 
been more entirely indebted for whatever success may at any time 
have crowned intellectual efforts to uncultivated nature than myself, 
yet I do not remember the occasion when I succeeded in satisfying 
my friends that I did not feel that I could have done much better 
if I had possessed better advantages of Education and study. Hence 
my resolutions revived at almost every period of my life to become a 
severe student—resolutions which were frustrated, if not, as the 
Apostle says of sin, by a war in my members, certainly by one in 
my unconquerable mental habits. 

I cannot pass from the subject of my early professional career 
in inferior tribunals without a caution to my young friends, the 
circumstances of whose start in life may resemble my own, against 
the adoption of a similar course. The temptation to anticipate pro- 
fessional fame is a strong one, and my success, humble as it has been, 
is well calculated to misléad young men of genius and ambition. 
Whatever the degree of that success may have been they may be 
assured that it would have been much greater and more substantial 
if like many others, who may not have succeeded as well, I had first 
acquired a sound education and stored my mind with useful knowl- 


° MS. I, p. 10. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 13 


edge. After those invaluable objects are substantially accomplished, 
many advantages may be derived from the practice I pursued; but 
if those acquisitions do not precede its adoption they will in all 
probability never be made. 

I was admitted to the Bar of the Supreme Court in the Fall of 
1803, and gave my first vote in the ensuing spring in the celebrated 
Gubernatorial election between Aaron Burr, and Morgan Lewis. 
Altho’ I had for some time before been entrusted with professional 
business, and, as a zealous politician, represented my county at the 
age of nineteen in a District Convention held at Troy, which nom- 
inated John P. Van Ness for Congress, yet both my professional 
and political career can only be considered as commenced at this 
period. The families which had hitherto taken the lead in the 
politics of my native town were the Van Ness on the Republican, 


and the Van Schaack and the Silvester on the Federal side. They 


had been opposed to each other, as Whigs and Tories in the Revolu- 
tion, and they imbibed the prejudices and resentments engendered by 
Civil War; they had also been arrayed in adverse ranks in all the 
political divisions that had subsequently arisen, but by a remark- 
able combination of circumstances I was, at my first appearance on 
the political stage, placed in direct opposition to those influential 
families and their friends as a united body, and experienced a full 
share in the intolerance that characterized the times. 

Mr. Silvester,* in whose office I had been placed as a student, 
was a just and honorable man. Such was also the character of 
his venerable father, and indeed of all the members of his family. 
° His Uncles, the Van Schaacks, and their numerous connexions, 
including the widely known and justly respected Peter Van Schaack. 
Were persons of much reputation and distinction. But they were 
all ardent politicians, and some of them very violent in their feelings. 
Efforts to divert me from my determined course were not wanting. 
I will refer to but one of them. After the election of 1798 or 9. 
when I was between sixteen and seventeen years of age, Elisha 
Williams, who in the sequel became my principal professional com- 
petitor, arrived in the village, and announced the success of the fed- 
eral candidates, of whom Peter Silvester, the father of my instructor 
and one of the purest men I ever knew, was one. There followed. 
of course, a gathering of the faithful—a firing of cannon and all 
the usual methods of rejoicing over political success, continuing 
until night. It was noticed that I did not participate in these 
expressions, and whilst a collection of choice spirits. (of whom 
an elder half-brother of mine was one) were drinking their wine 
and singing “ Hail Cokumbia !” and other patriotic songs in an 


3 Francis Silvester. ° MS. I, p. 15. 


14 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. ’ ake 33 * g 
upper room, Cornelius Silvester,a brother of my instructor, 7 
merchant, and a generous, noble hearted man, having observed the — 
state of my feelings, came out and pressed me earnestly to join them, — 
Having declined his invitation, which was given with delicacy and — 
kindness, I retired to his store, where I slept in the absence of his _ 
clerk. Some time after midnight I heard a knocking at the door, 
and on opening it, admitted Mr. Silvester himself. At his instance — 
I returned to my bed, and he placed himself by its side, and for © 
more than an hour occupied himself in presenting the reasons — 
which ought to induce me to adopt the politicks of the Federal 
party, and solicited me to do so with a degree of earnestness and 
obvious concern for my welfare which I could not but respect. . 
After hearing him out, I replied calmly that I appreciated thor- 
oughly the kindness of te feelings, and was well satisfied of the 
purity of his motives, but that my course had been settled after much 
reflection, and could not be changed. He paused a moment, and then 
took my hand and said he moni never trouble me again on the sub- — 
ject, and would always remain my friend. As was quite natural my 
insensibility to repeated remonstrances and solicitations and the ac-— 
tive part which I thus early took against them in party politics en- 
gendered heart burning with all and occasional tho’ slight bickerings 
between Mr. Silvester and myself which rendered my situation dis- 
agreeable, and determined me to seek another place to complete my 
studies. Mr. Van Ness succeeded in his election to Congress, married 
an heiress at Washington, and returned to Kinderhook in high 
feather. His father, altho’ a man of wealth had been disappointed 
in his son’s first progress in life and, being withal a very severe man, 
had withheld from him all advances not indispensable to his support. 
So poor were both of us, that when I went to Troy to sustain his 
nomination, I had to borrow the amount necessary to defray my ex- 
pences. Pome now in very affluent circumstances, and conscious of 
the increasing embarrassment of my situation in Mr, Silvester’s of- 
fice, he pressed me to enter one of the prominent law offices in the 
city of New York, and offered to loan me the necessary funds, to be 
repaid when I was able. I accepted the offer, went to New York, 
and entered temporarily, the office of his brother William P. Van. 
Ness, intending to look about me before selecting an office of the 
character we contemplated. Mr, W. P. Van Ness treated me kindly, 
and altho’ he had but little business, as I found so much the more 
opportunity for study I remained with him to the end of my Clerk- 
ship. It becoming necessary for Mr. Van Ness to advance large sums 
to relieve estates on which his wife owned mortgages from prior in- 
cumbrances he was only able to fulfill his promise to me to the trifling 
extent of Forty dollars, but tendered*his pledge to re-imburse any 


=i ee, 


OR x 
% ~ 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 15 


temporary accommodation I might obtain from other sources; but 
at this juncture my half brother stepped forward and loaned me all 
I wanted. The prompt return of the forty dollars to Mr. Van Ness 
closed our pecuniary relations in advance of the change that soon 
after took place in those of a personal and political character. 

The war between Colonel Burr, and the Clintonians was then 
raging with its greatest severity, and the contest which closed the 
political career of the former took place in the ensuing spring. 
Mr. William P. Van Ness carried me occasionally to visit Colonel 
Burr at Richmond Hill, and I met him sometimes at Mr. Van 
Ness’s house. He treated me with much attention, and my sym- 
pathies were excited by his subsequent position. Having entered 
upon the practice of my profession in my native town, under very 
favorable circumstances and already acquired the reputation of an 
active politician, the course I would take in the election became a 
question of considerable local interest. The relation in which I 
had stood to the Van Ness family, with my known personal par- 
tiality for Colonel Burr, created so strong an impression that I 
would support him, that my friends have often in later years been 
called upon to defend me against the charge of having been a Burr- 
ite. In reply to a friendly and very proper letter from William P. 
Van Ness I stated to him the grounds upon which I had decided to 
support the Republican candidate Morgan Lewis. These letters are 
still among my papers.’ Notwithstanding this, Mr. John P. Van 
Ness came from Washington to attend the election, and re-opened 
the matter to me. I explained to him at our first interview the 
stand I had taken, and the grounds of it. He however continued 
the discussion for several days, until not finding me disposed to yield, 
he stopped abruptly in the street, and said, with emphasis, “I see, 
Sir, that you are determined upon your course.” TI replied, “Yes, 
Sir! I told you so at the beginning.” He immediately said “Good 
morning, Sir! ”-with a very grave look and tone, turned on his heel, 


_ and walked off. From that moment our friendship terminated, and 


our social relations even were suspended for nearly twenty years. 
We encountered each other in the newspapers and at the polls, and 
when I offered my vote, the first I ever gave, his father, Peter Van 
Ness, and Peter Van Schaack, who had been, as I have already said, 
at variance since the Revolution, but were now both ardent sup- 
porters of Col. Burr, came forward, arm in arm, ‘accompanied by 
the son of the latter, who, with their approbation, challenged my 
vote. Altho’ the inspectors declared themselves satisfied, I was com- 
pelled to take the oath prescribed by law—an indignity which at the 


1 William P. Van Ness to Van Buren, 22 February, 1804, and Van Buren’s reply, 13 
March, 1804. 


16 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


next election I retaliated upon young Van Schaack in a way as 
technically lawful as his own, but which stung him and his friends 
too deeply to be soon forgotten. 

Peter Van Ness and Peter Van Schaack, whose combined influence 
frowned so harshly upon the commencement of my political career 
were men of no common mark. Judge Van Ness commenced life 
in the humble but respectable trade of a wheelwright, with very 
little education, and yet by the force of a strong intellect and an 
indomitable spirit, he raised himself to high positions as well in 
the government as in the society in which he lived. As early as 
the French War in 1756, and at the age of nineteen, he commanded 
a company, by their own choice, and served with them in Canada. 
He afterwards commanded a Regiment at the capture of Burgoyne 
in 1777. He was a prominent member, perhaps the most so, of the 
Committee of Public Safety for his County, during the Revolu- 
tionary War, State Senator, Member of the Council of Appoint- 
ment, Member of the Convention for the Adoption of the Consti- 
tution, and First Judge of his County, which office he held at the 
time of his death. He was intolerant in his political opinion and 
arbitrary in his disposition. The traditions of the neighbourhood, 
in which he lived and died, abound with anecdotes of his fiery temper 
and personal courage, and in the epitaph on his tombstone, erected 
at Lindenwald, forty years after his death, and after the place had 
been some time mine, he is described by his eldest son, General John 
P. Van Ness, as “an honest brave man, who feared nothing but his - 
God.” My opposition to° his views, which he regarded as a species 
of treason in a stripling and a member of a family with whom he 
had been connected at marriage and had been always intimate; pro- 
duced during the canvass unpleasant collisions between us that made 
it difficult to treat him with the respect due to his years and posi- 
tion, and his death occurred too soon after those exciting scenes to 
give his anger time to subside. In that interval I had but one meet- 
ing with him, and that under circumstances that I had reason to , 
believe did not aggravate his prejudice. His son Willam, having 
been the second of Col. Burr in his duel with Gen. Hamilton, which 
took place soon after the election, finding it prudent to leave the . 
city of New York after the result was known came to his father’s 
house at Kinderhook, 

He informed me by a friendly note, of his desire to go to Albany, 
and to consult with me, before going, in regard to his right to be 
bailed if he should be arrested there, and for that purpose asked me 
to call on him at his father’s house. Happy in the opportunity thus 
afforded to shew him that our differences in regard to the election 


° MS. I, p. 20. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 17 


had made none in my friendly feelings towards him I started at 
once for his father’s residence without a thought of the existing rela- 
_ tions between the old gentleman and myself. As I approached the 
porch of the house built and then owned and occupied by Judge Van 
_ Ness, I perceived that the lower half of the old-fashioned front door 
which was divided through the middle (a style greatly favored by 
our Dutch ancestors) was closed, and the upper open, at which the 
_ Judge was seated close to and with his back against the lower door, 
_ for the benefit of the light, reading a newspaper. Hearing my steps 
_ he looked around and perceiving me, instantly resumed his reading 
_ in a manner that precluded me from addressing him. The door for 
explanation, as well as that for entrance, being thus closed upon me, 
_ and not feeling disposed to retreat, I seized the knocker which was 
hanging’ near his head, and gave it a somewhat emphasized rap, and 
as I did so I saw a smile upon his countenance of which my position 
afforded me a profile view. His son answered the summons imme- 
diately, spoke to his father, (who passed into the drawing room 
_ without looking behind him) and opened the door for me. He pro- 
posed a walk to the neighboring bank of the creek to prevent inter- 
_ ruption from visitors. We passed thro’ the Hall, and, as we left 
the house by the back door, he apologized to me for having forgot- 
ten the relations between his father and myself, which would have 
_ made it more proper for him to come to me. I told him he was not 
_ to blame, for, in the pre-occuption of the moment, I had forgotten 
_ them myself, but thought the circumstances bid fair to improve our 
_ intercourse, and then described the old gentleman’s irrepressible 
amusement at the free use I had made of the knocker. He laughed 
and said that he had no doubt his father was pleased with the way, 
so much in character with his own decisive temper, in which I had 
extricated myself from the embarrassment in which he had placed 
me. The Judge died in the succeeding month of December, pos- 
sessed of considerable wealth. The estate on which he had long 
resided, and on which he was buried, was originally settled by a 
family who were relations of my father. It was sold at the close 
_ of the Revolutionary War to pay the debts of the then head of the 

family, and purchased by the Judge. He devised it to his son 
_ William, in whose hands it went thro’ a similar process, and was 


eee ae 


ere OS hCUr”C 


4 
_ purchased by one of his creditors who sold it to me. In the many 
__ alterations and improvements I have made in the house I have pre- 
served the old double-door, and its knocker, as interesting memorials 
of my last interview with its orignal owner. 

: During my long official residence at Washington, very courteous 
_ relations were maintained with my old friend Gen. John P. Van 


a 127483°—vor 220-2 


18 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


Ness, but he by no means liked my political principles. My course 
in regard to the currency and particularly in respect to the Banks 
of the District of Columbia, in one of which he was deeply interested, 
displeased him so much, as to induce him to come to our county in 
1840, to speak and electioneer against my re-election. Having, at an 
early day, obtained my permission to erect a monument over his 
father’s grave, he came up for that purpose, not a great while before 
his death, but with an evident resolution that our intercourse should 
be of the most reserved character. Altho’ the business he had in 
hand would detain him some days, he declined my invitation to stay 
with me, and, at first, every other advance on my part to facilitate 
his operations. I notwithstanding directed my people to give him 
all the assistance he needed, and on the second day he consented to 
dine with me. He did the same on each succeeding day, and left me 
when his work was finished with feelings as kind as those which 
existed at the commencement of our acquaintance. We visited the 
tomb together on the last day of his stay and he read aloud the 
inscription on the monument, and when he came to the words com- 
memorating his father’s bravery, which I have elsewhere quoted, he 
turned to me and said emphatically “ You, Sir, know that this is 
true;” to which I very heartily and sincerely assented. The Gen- 
eral died shortly afterwards. I did not see him again. I have 
thought this brief notice due to a gentleman with whom I was at the 
commencement of my career so closely connected, and who was in 
every sense a remarkable man. 

Peter Van Schaack was a native of Kinderhook. His family was 
among its first settlers, and generally independent in their circum- 
stances. He was a graduate of Columbia College and had every fa- 
cility afforded him for improvement. Of these he did not fail to 
avail himself and came to be extensively and justly regarded as a 
finished scholar as well as a learned Counsellor. Having studied the 
Common law thoroughly as a science and made himself master of its 
general principles, their application to particular cases was to him 
always a matter of pleasant entertainment rather than of labour. A 
diffidence which he could not overcome prevented him from becoming 
a successful advocate, but his legal opinions were generally respected. » 
He was through life, excepting the period of the War of the Reyolu- 
tion, the friend and close companion of Jay, Benson, and Sedgwick, 
but those ties were suspended by the course he took in that great 
struggle. They became prominent and efficient Whigs, while his 
principles made him a Tory. The correspondence between Mr. J ay 
and himself, while they stood in that position of antagonism, which 
is published in a very creditable life of Mr. Yan Schaack, written by 
his son, does high and enduring honor to both parties. He was ban- 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 19 


ished, and resided in England until the close of the War. When he 
returned Mr. Jay met him at the wharf and gave him a cordial and 
generous reception. He resumed the practice of his profession and 
in the progress of time became once more united in political principle 
with Gov. Jay and the other friends I have named in the ranks of 


the federal party. Altho’ he occupied an eminent position at the Bar 


and in Society for half a century following he was never elected to 
any public office, nor was he to my knowledge ever a candidate for 
one. He lived in times and in locations which would have been fa- 
vorable to his election, if he had desired it, but his sight became grad- 
ually impaired, ending in total blindness. That circumstance and 
feelings of delicacy connected with his course in the Revolution kept 
him out of the Arena, as a candidate, but did not prevent him from 
being a thorough partisan. 

His prejudices against me in early life were of the rankest kind, 
but being frequently associated as counsel in important. professional 
business, in which our feelings were deeply enlisted, we came to 
understand and to like each other better. For a series of years 
before his death our relations were of a friendly character—politics 
always excepted. In respect to the latter we never made an ap- 
proach toward accord, and but a few years before his death, he 
went, old and blind as he was, to the Polls to vote against me, in 
my canvass for the office of Governor of New York, and in favor 
of a gentleman whom I knew he did not like, personally, half as 
well as he liked me.’ My faith in the capacity of the masses of the 
People of our Country to govern themselves, and in their general 
integrity in the exercise of that function, was very decided and 
was more and more strengthened as my intercourse with them ex- 
tended.° Of this he had, to use the mildest term, very little. The 
limited extent to which his nature would allow him to entertain it 
was, at an early and critical period, overthrown, and the severe 
penalties inflicted upon his unbelief, doubtless gave to his feelings 
in this regard a character of harshness. Differing so widely at the 
starting point, our views became more divergent at every step we 
took in politics, as well in regard to men as to measures. On my 
first return from England I visited Kinderhook, and hearing that 
he was lying hopelessly ill, I was on the point of starting to see 
him, when his son came with an invitation from him that I should 
do so; and I was deeply impressed with the solemnity of the inter- 
view. I found him lying on a temporary bed in his library, where 
he desired to die, and where I had so often seen him in the full 
possession and exercise of his powerful mental faculties. As soon 


1Van Buren’s opponents were Smith Thompson and Solomon Southwick, the latter 
running on the anti-Masonic ticket—wW. C. I. 
Sa iSed 05) 2a 


- 


20 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


as I entered he had himself raised in his bed, extended his hand to 
me and expressed his satisfaction at seeing me. He said that he 
was going through his last change, and on my expressing a hope 
that such might not prove to be the case, he stopped me, and said 
“No!” he had lived out the full measure of his days, and could not 
be too thankful that his mental] faculties had been preserved till his 
last moments. It so happened that I had made myself familiar 
with the place of his residence during his exile in London, and he 
listened with interest to my description of its present condition. 
He spoke kindly and considerately of the relations that had existed 
between us, and I was struck with his evident desire to make the 
civil things his gentlemanly disposition induced him to say con- 
form strictly to the fact, without reviving unpleasant recollections. — 
In bidding me farewell forever he said “I am happy, Sir, to think 
that we have always been”—/friends he seemed about to add, but, 
pausing a moment, he continued—“ that you always came to see me 
when you visited Kinderhook.” In a day or two I heard that this 
distinguished man had ceased to live. 


ld | / 


ee Pe UL ie ee) ee a en ae ee 


CHAPTER II. 


I remained in the practice of the law twenty five years, and until 


_ I entered upon the duties of the office of Governor, since which I 


have never appeared in a professional capacity before any judicial 
tribunal, comprising from my admission to the present time a 
period of fifty one years. For my business I was to a marked extent 
indebted to the publick at large, having received but little from the 
Mercantile interest or from Corporations, and none from the great 
landed aristocracies of the country. It was notwithstanding fully 
equal to my desires and far beyond my most sanguine expectations. 
I was not worth a shilling when I commenced my professional career. 
T have never since owed a debt that I could not pay on demand nor’ 
known what it is to want money, and I retired from the practice 
of my profession with means adequate to my own support, and to 
leave to my children, not large estates, but as much as I think it for 
their advantage to receive. The cases in which I was employed em- 
braced not only the ordinary subjects of litigation between- man 
and man in communities like that in which I resided but extended 
to the most intricate and important causes that arose during the last 
fifteen or twenty years of my practice. In the management of these 
I was repeatedly associated with and opposed to such men as Richard 
Harrison, Aaron Burr, Thomas Addis Emmett, Daniel. Webster, 
John Wells, John V. Henry, Peter Van Schaack, Abraham Van 
Vechten, David B. Ogden, Samuel A. Talcott and Elisha Williams— 
a galaxy of great lawyers scarcely equalled in the professional ranks 
of any country. 

Elisha Williams, altho’ ten years my senior was my professional 


antagonist thro’ the whole of my professional career. We were for 


a long succession of years employed in almost every cause that was 


_ tried at the Bar of Columbia County, where we both resided, and 


almost always on opposite sides. We were at the same time promi- 
nent leaders in our respective political parties, and both warm par- 


_ tisans. To the danger of imbibing personal prejudice from these 


prolific sources was added that which threatened the discharge of 
adverse duties in cases embittered by the strong personal antipathies 
of the parties to the litigation; and yet, with a constant indulgence 


_ in what is called loose, and means liberal practice, we never had, to 


my recollection, a motion before the Court for relief against techni- 

eal or formal advantages taken on either side. I invariably en- 

countered him with more apprehension at the Circuits than any of 
21 


22, AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


the great men I have named, and I am sure I speak but the opinion 
of his professional contemporaries when I say that he was the great- 
est nist-prius lawyer of the New York Bar. It seemed scarcely pos- 
sible to excel his skill in the examination of witnesses or his ad- 
dresses to the Jury, but with these his ambition seemed satisfied; for 
arguments at the Term he was seldom well prepared and far less 
successful. On closing our last professional concern after my re- 
tirement he expressed to me by letter his great satisfaction that in 
a practice so peculiarly exciting as ours had been we had never any 
cause for personal complaint in our professional proceedings and 
tendered me assurances of his respect and esteem, feelings which 
were very cordially reciprocated on my part. 

The briefest sketch of the incidents of such a professional career 
as mine has been would yet be too long for insertion here, assuming 
that they would be of sufficient interest so long after their occurence, 
to justify it. They must therefore, with one or two exceptions, be 
left to the judicial reports, and to the traditions of the times. The 
exceptions, as will be seen, have more than professional relations. 

My employment as Counsel to contest the title of the Livingston 
family to the Manor which bears their name, has been a fruitful 
scource of misrepresentation of both my professional and political 
conduct, and I will therefore be excused for placing that matter 
upon its true ground. Did the subject possess no other interest than 
my own vindication from unmerited aspersions I would, on the prin- 
ciple by which I am governed in the preparation of this Memoir, 
pass it by.. But a brief and true statement of a matter which has, at 
intervals for nearly a century produced bitter litigation and violence, 
making repeated appeals to military aid necessary to the preserva- 
tion of the public order, and in regard to which the acts of dis- 
tinguished individuals have been brought in question, cannot be with- 
out interest. 

Robert Livingston, in the year 1684, obtained a Patent from - 
the Crown for a strip of Land on the Eastern shore of the 
North (or Hudson) River, stretching from the Northern to the 
Southern Boundary of the Manor, as it is now held, and extending 
into the woods so far as to contain Eighteen Hundred acres, with 
a reference to monuments at each end of the strip, which are now 
the North and South bounds of the Patent. A short time after- 
wards he obtained another Patent for what was then and has ever 
since been known as Tackkanic (Taghkanie?) Flats lying East of the 
first Tract, and supposed to contain eight hundred Morghens of 
land. Both grants contained definite bounds and distinct quantities. 
In 1686 he obtained a Patent of Confirmation, which recites the two 
previous Patents, and states that the tracts described in them Le 


— 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 23 


adjacent to each other. This Patent contains apt words granting 
and confirming to him and to his heirs the said Tracts of land, 
therein represented to have been previously granted and now de- 
scribed by exterior bounds, referring to natural objects, which bounds 
included the present Manor. In point of fact the lands embraced 
in the two first Patents lay from eighteen to twenty miles apart 
from each other, and the intermediate lands constitute the principal 
part of the present Manor, amounting to some acres, 
whilst the tracts contained in the original Patents amount to be- 
tween three and four thousand. That this representation was the 
act of the applicant for the Patent and that it was grossly untrue 
are undeniable facts. They have never been controverted because 
they could not be denied, and there is not the slightest doubt that if 
the Government at ° Home had become apprised of the: glaring 
falsity upon which the Patent of Confirmation was granted, and 
had, within a proper time, instituted proceedings to vacate it, the 
Patent would have been declared void. Why it was not done, and 
why this indirect course was originally pursued by Mr. Livingston, 
and why he did not afterwards apply for and obtain an original 
Patent not referring to and wholly independent of those which were 
tainted with the fraud, are questions which will probably never be 
solved. The regulations in force in regard to the quantity for 
which grants to individuals were authorized when the first Patents 
were granted, the footing on which he stood with the Government 
at the different periods when they were issued, and a natural re- 
pugnance to an acknowledgment of the original Error may each 
have had their influence in controlling his course, and there may 
have been inducements of which we have no knowledge or suspicion. 
But instead of adopting the course I have referred to, Mr. Liv- 
ingston made it the business of his life, as it has been that of his 
heirs, to uphold the tainted title by a succession of acts on the part 
of the Crown, by its Colonial Government, and on the part of the 
State Authority after the Revolution, to strengthen the Patent of 
Confirmation, and his claim under it. 

The fact of the misrepresentation and the fraud involved in it 
was open to the tenants, and the ground readily taken that no after 
acts, bottomed on that original fraud could render the title valid. 
This state of things gave rise to periodical agitations and repeated 
outbreakings among the tenants from about the year 1760 to the 
present time; one or more arose before I was born, one whilst I 
was a student at law, one whilst I was at the Bar, and one after 
I left it. When I was retained by the Committee who represented 
the Tenants, I gave the main opinion in writing in which I held, 


° MS. I, p. 30. 


94 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


Forst, that the Patent of 1686 (the first which covered the Manor) 
was void on account of the fraudulent misrepresentation it con- 
tained and on which it was founded, and was not made valid by 
the subsequent Patents which recited it, and were, in that respect, 
avowedly designed as Patents of Confirmation only; and Secondly, 
That the effect of the possession of the claimants under it and of — 
the statutes of limitation in barring the rights of the State was 
a question of greater difficulty, in regard to which I must not be 
understood as encouraging them with a prospect of a favorable 
result. A suit to try titles was brought by Thomas Addis Emmett 
as Attorney General on behalf of the State, but before it could 
be brought to trial, he was displaced from office by a political 
change, and succeeded by Abraham Van Vechten. The Committee 
not believing that they could be properly prepared at the first 
Circuit for which the cause was noticed for trial, in which opinion 
their counsel, including Mr. Emmett, (whom they had retained 
after his removal) concurred, and assuming that their wishes for 
a postponement until the next Circuit would, under the circum- 
stances, be respected, took no preparatory steps. These views and 
wishes were communicated to Mr. Van Vechten, on his arrival at 
Hudson, who declined to comply with them, and decided to pro- 
ceed in the trial. The Committee protested against this decision, 
and refused to take any part in the investigation. The trial, vir- 
tually an ew-parte proceeding, resulted in a verdict for the defend- 
ants. No farther steps were taken whilst I was at the Bar, but the 
matter was, as is well known, subsequently revived and bitterly 
contested. 

Whilst the proceedings first referred to were going on, I was 
called upon by Gen. Jacob R. Van Rensselaer, accompanied by Mr. 
Williams, and informed that a report was in circulation on the 
Manor, that he had said on the floor of the House of Assembly, in 
a debate on a petition of the tenants, “that the tenants were not 
fit to govern themselves, and deserved to have a Master”—that 
this report was doing him great injury in the matter of his re- 
election, and that, as I could not believe that he had said so, he 
wished me to authorize the Newspaper to contradict the report in 
my name as the most effectual way of putting it down. TI asked 
him whether he had any suspicion that the report had been in any 
degree countenanced by me. He replied,—* not the slightest ”’—that 
he had fully satisfied himself upon that point. I then told him 
that he had done me but justice in that regard, that I had never 
heard of the report before, and had no hesitation in saying to him 
and to Mr. Williams that I believed him to be a man of too much 
good sense to make such a remark, and this I thought would be 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 25 


the general opinion. But I added that their press had been for a 
long time and was at that very moment teeming with the most 
outrageous calumnies against me on the same general subject. charg- 
ing me with things which he could not but be satisfied were false, 
but that I heard of no attempts on his part or that of his friends to 
check their course; that I would point out the libels to which I 
alluded, shew him their falsity, if that were necessary, and that the 
moment I found him interfering in my behalf, as he wished me to 
do for him, I would with pleasure comply with his wishes;—until 
then I must decline to do so. He refused to connect other matters 
with his request and was as persistent in making it as I was in de- 
clining it. He then gave me notice that he would call a meet- 
ing of, the People of the Manor towns, on a day and at a place 
he named, at which meeting he would charge me with writing a 
letter during the preceding winter (as he had been credibly in- 
formed was the case), to a member of the Legislature—Mr. Whal- 
lon advising him to stave off action on the Tenant’s petition until 
after the Spring elections, with a view to securing the favourable 


_ effect on those elections of the pendency of the matter. I assured 


him that his information was entirely false, and offered to give 
him a letter, authorizing Mr. Whallon to furnish him with copies 
of any letters I had written to him, or to obtain copies for him 
myself. He declined the offer and called his meeting. I sent a 
messenger to the place with a letter, addressed to the Chairman 
of the meeting narrating what had taken place between the Gen- 
eral and myself—giving the fullest contradiction to the revelation 
he proposed to make, and requesting to have my letter read to the 
meeting. The Chairman put my communication in his pocket, and 
allowed Gen. Van Rensselaer to make his statement—without say- 
ing one word to the meeeting about its receipt of contents. 

When informed of this I published a card in the Newspapers and 
in Hand bills, denouncing in the strongest terms the falsity of the 
General’s accusations, and called a meeting at the same place for 
the purpose of making the same denial in person. I gave the Gen- 
eral notice of the time, place, and object of the meeting with an invi- 
tation to attend. When my friend Mr. Morell, and myself’ arrived 
at the place of meeting we found a very large assemblage of people, 
and among them General Van Rensselaer, Mr. Williams and several 
members of the Livingston family and their Agents. As soon as the 
meeting was organized I rose and stated my object in calling it— 


submitted to it certified copies of the only letters I had written to 


Mr. Whallon—denied the charge upon which the General had ar- 
raigned me before them and called upon him to maintain it if he 
could. He stood in a remote part of the room, but did not then 
speak or shew any disposition to do so. After a pause I rose again, 


26 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


and, repeating what had transpired, claimed that his continued 
silence must under the circumstances be regarded by the meeting as 
a confession that his charge was untrue. He then came forward, 
greatly agitated, and made an earnest appeal to the meeting, which 
he concluded by pledging himself that if I would commence a suit 
against him, he would, as the words were not actionable, deposit in 
Court five hundred dollars, as stipulated damages, to be forfeited if 
he did not prove the charge. I promised to comply with the sug- 
gestion, and contented myself with asking the meeting to remember 
my prediction that the Deposit would never be made. After the 
close of the Election I called upon him to redeem his promise, when 
he replied that he had, at the time, limited the period within which 
the call was to be made, and as that had expired he now declined to 
make the Deposit; a declaration which the whole assembly before 
whom his pledge had been given knew to be unfounded. The pub- 
lication of our correspondence closed the affair between the General 
and myself. I also brought a libel suit against the Editor’ of the 
federal newspaper for a still broader ° and libelous impeachment of 
my conduct and motives in the Manor controversy. This I ceased 
to prosecute on the application of Mr. Williams made by a letter in 
which he disclaimed for the Editor a design to accuse me of any- 
thing beyond or inconsistent with my professional rights and duties, 
claiming only that my opinions were wrong and led to injurious 
results. 

I make these explanations in view of the extent to which these 
questions between Landlord and- Tenant have in later times been 
made the subject of political agitation—leading to such debauchery 
of the publick mind as to enable it to hear without apparent shock, 
of the extension of Executive pardon to persons convicted of the 
darkest crimes growing out of such agitations, under circumstances 
justifying deep suspicion of being designed to operate upon their 
suffrages and the suffrages of their friends. The time has I hope 
never been when my mind would not have revolted at the mere con- 
templation of such dealings with such subjects, and I am quite 
unwilling to have any acts of mine confounded with those we have 
witnessed in more recent times. 

I am induced to speak of another matter connected with my pro- 
fessional life because it relates to the only personal dispute I ever 
had which led to the extremity to which it was pursued. At the 
Columbia Circuit in the year 181 [?] we brought to a final and 
favorable decision, so far as related to the Courts of law, the long 
_ existing controversy in regard to the effect of a Patent, in which 
many of the Dutch families (and mine among them) w ce inter- 


eouands Sass editor of the Northern Whig, published in Hudson.—W. C. F. 
° MS. I, p. 35. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. AE 


ested, and which Mr. Van Schaack had had under his professional 


care and management since the year 1772. Being very much dis- 
_ satisfied with the testimony of a surveyor, who had formerly been 


on our side but was now against us, I thought it but fair, as I was » 
entitled to the closing speech, to give him notice of the attack I in- 
_ tended to make upon his credibility and the grounds of it, to afford 
_ the opposing Counsel an opportunity of sustaining him. Among 
the latter was John Suydam, a young gentleman from another 
county and then rapidly rising in professional fame, and also high 
in the confidence and esteem of the federal party. When I came to 
that part of the case he interrupted me and used offensive expres- 
sions, to which I replied hastily and still more offensively. No 
farther notice was taken of the matter on that or the next day, but on 
the third a dinner was given by General Van Rensselaer, at 
Claverack, to a large party of distinguished gentlemen of the federal 
party, including Mr. Suydam and also General Harry Livingston, a 
valorous old gentleman, who owed me much ill will and acknowledged 
the debt with no more reserve than that with which he strove to pay 
it. I am far from saying or even believing that the affair between 
Mr, Suydam and myself was made the subject of particular action 
at that dinner; but it gave Mr. Suydam a better opportunity than 
he had yet had to see to what extent I was an eye-sore to the Mag- 
nates of the County, and exposed him to the temptation of raising 
himself in their estimation by becoming the instrument of my 
humiliation. On the succeeding morning I was called from my seat 
in Court by Thomas P. Grosvenor (who had been’one of the guests 
at the entertainment referred to) and by him presented with a chal- 
lenge from Mr. Suydam. Mr. Grosvenor was the brother-in-law 
of Mr. Williams and a man of decided talent and distinction in pub- 
lick life: he became afterwards a prominent-member of Congress, 
had a personal affair with Mr. Calhoun, and died at Baltimore. He 
expressed his desire to accommodate the matter in which I believe 
he was sincere, as, altho’ a man of extreme violence in politics, he was 
not wanting in generous impulses, and proceeded to state how he 
thought the affair might be arranged without discredit on either side. 
1 thanked him for his good disposition, but had no difficulty in 
showing him that the reciprocal declarations he suggested would 
be directly inconsistent with what I had said of Mr. Suydam, and 

concluded by telling him that I had no course but to accept the invi- 
_ tation, and would give him a formal answer, through my friend Mr. 
Morell, after the adjournment of the Court. No one entertains a 
tore contemptuous opinion of the bravery of the Duel field than 
myself, or holds the practice in less respect, but I deemed it indis- 
pensable to the maintenance of my position to follow the bad ex- 
amples which publick opinion had sanctioned if not required, I 


fey 


28 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


therefore delivered my acceptance to Mr. Morell on my returning — 


from Court. He reported to me the next morning that Mr. Grosve- 


nor irritated by the incessant remonstrances of his friends against 


his agency in the affair, had refused to have any intercourse with 
him upon the subject, and had tendered to him any responsibility 
that he chose to demand; that he had then called on Mr. Suydam 
and offered him my reply which he refused to receive unless it came 
thro’ Mr. Grosvenor. I requested him to see Mr. Suydam imme- 
diately and to propose to him, in my name, that we should agree 
to dispense with the farther action of both of our friends and appoint 
others as the only way in which the difficulty that had arisen could 
be obviated. He executed the commission and returned with a verbal 
answer from Mr. Suydam that he could not, under the circumstances, 
consent to dispense with Mr. Grosvenor’s services. I went imme- 
diately to his hotel and posted him, and the affair finally evaporated 
in newspaper publications and recognizances to keep the peace.’ For 
some years there was no intercourse between us, tho’ a disposition 
to restore friendly relations was quite apparent on his part, and at 
length meeting at dinner, while attending Court in a neighbouring 
county, and sitting opposite to each other, he asked me to pass the 
wine which stood before me, and I met the overture with an invita- 
tion to take a glass with me which he accepted “ with pleasure ”, and 
we walked arm-in-arm to the Court house to our mutual gratifica- 
tion and the astonishment of our friends. He soon after joined our 
side in politicks, was elected to the [State] Senate as a Democrat, 
became my zealous friend and supporter and remained so till he 
died, sincerely lamented by all who knew him, and by none more 
than myself, as a man of noble impulses, honorable character and 
decided talent. — 3 

Earnestly engaged in a successful and lucrative practice, I had 
no desire to be a candidate for an elective office, nor did I become one 
until the Spring of 1812, when I was forced into that position by 
circumstances with which I could not deal differently. But from 
my boyhood I had been a zealous partisan, supporting with all my 
power the administrations of Jefferson and Madison—ineluding the 


Embargo and other restrictive measures,—had acted with the great — 


body of the Republican party in supporting the election of Morgan 
Lewis against Aaron Burr for Governor, and subsequently that of 
Daniel D. Tompkins against Governor Lewis? for the same office, 
sustained the prorogation of the Legislature by Governor Tomp- 
kins on the ground of the use of corrupt means to obtain the charter 
of the bank of America, and had exerted myself, as far as I could, 


1Two notes of this affair are in the Van Buren Papers, November 25, 1811, and 
February 17, 1812.—W. C. F. 
2In 1807.—W. C. F. 


EE eo le ee 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 29 


_ to arrest the bank mania of the times by which the State was dis- 
_ honored and its best interests impaired. It is a curious coincidence 
in my publick career that notwithstanding my devotion to politicks, 
my first nomination for an elective office as well as that for the last 
T held, should both have been brought about by the unfriendly acts 
of those who chose to regard themselves as rivals without being, at 
the moment, anticipated by myself. There were several highly 
respectable citizens who aspired to the nomination to fill the va- 
cancy in the office of State Senator which occurred in my District 
in 1812, but I was not of the number. I was unwilling to permit 
the possession of such an office or any other cause to interfere with 
the prosecution of my profession, to which I was warmly attached, 
and the circumstance that there had not then been so young a man 
as myself elected to the Senate prevented me from even thinking 
of it. William P. Van Ness, in whose office I had studied law, was 
one of the aspirants. He had succeeded to the title and possession 
of his father’s place at- Kinderhook and Mr. John C. Hogeboom and 
myself had prevailed upon Governor Tompkins to relieve him, by 
pardon, from the disfranchisement to which he had become liable 
as a second of Colonel Burr in the duel with General Hamilton. 
He had solicited my support but received for answer that I consid- 
ered Mr. °Hogeboom best entitled to the place. To this he assented 
and assured me that he should do nothing to prevent his selection. 
Not long afterwards and while Mr. Hogeboom and myself were 
spending a few days at Albany, we accidentally discovered that Mr. 
Van Ness (who had accompanied us to the city) was at that mo- 
ment prosecuting a complicated intrigue to defeat our wishes in the 
matter—whatever they might be. Indignant at the information we 
had received, and mortified that in a matter in regard to which, as 
it proved, neither of us had any personal desires, we should have 
been thus treated, we immediately started for home determined to 
defeat the machinations that had been set on foot with so much ° 
secrecy and had already been in part executed. On our way from 
_ Albany Mr. Hogeboom, for the first time, informed me that the 
state of his private business would not admit of his being a can- 
didate——that he had consulted with our friends at Albany—that 
they all thought it important that I should be in the Senate, and 
that Mr. De Witt Clinton was particularly desirous that I should 
be sent. I objected to the proposition for reasons already referred 
to, with sincerity and earnestness. He entreated me not to come 
to a final conclusion until he could have a full opportunity to place 

_ the subject in all its bearings before me, and prevailed upon me 
_ to stop at his house for the night that we might talk the matter 


. 
: 
; 


hd ee see eee rar wae ls ee 


ee I ee ee Pe ee ee ee ae ee 


°MS. I, p. 40. 


~ 


30 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


over more fully. In the course of the evening he informed me more 


particularly of the views taken of the matter by Mr. Clinton, and 


remonstrated earnestly against a refusal to comply with the wishes 
of my friends. I agreed to give him a final answer in the morning 
when, satisfied that there was but one ground on which I could 
with propriety decline, I informed him that altho’ I had not heard 
so I thought it very probable that Mr. Robert Jenkins, a highly 
respected citizen of Hudson, might, if the nomination was to come 
from that city, desire to have it; that if he did so desire, as I had but 
recently become a resident of Hudson I could not think of entering 
into competition with him; that I should on reaching home com- 
municate to Mr. Jenkins’ friends without reserve all that had passed 
between us, and that if they did not desire the nomination for Mr. 
Jenkins I would not oppose the wises of my friends, but if they did 
I must insist on being excused. To this he consented and we parted. 
On my arrival I found that there also the city delegates had already 
been chosen and that I had been placed at their head, with three other 
gentlemen, the particular friends of Mr. R. Jenkins, of whom his 
brother, Mr. Seth Jenkins, was one. I immediately asked an in- 
terview with those gentlemen at my own house, in which I stated 
to them all that had passed between Mr. Hogeboom and myself— 
my own disinclination to be a candidate—and my determination to 
refuse the nomination if they desired to bring Mr. Jenkins forward, 
and I begged them to inform me frankly of their wishes. From their 
conversation I inferred that I was mistaken in supposing they en- 
tertained the views I had anticipated, and that they concurred in 
the opinion of Mr. Hogeboom that I could not refuse to run. Find- 
ing myself thus committed as I supposed to a contest with Mr. Van 
Ness only for the nomination, I théught it important in view of 
the transaction at Kinderhook to have the attention of the Party 
immediately directed to the subject by a call of the Convention. 
Some days after the publication of the Call, Judge Wager, a po- 
litical friend from the country called at my office and said, “I learn 
that you intend to have the Senator taken from Hudson ”—to which 
I replied, in a tone which under such circumstances gentlemen who 


suppose themselves referred to usually employ. He responded that I 


need not speak so modestly as it was not to me but to Robert Jenkins 
that he referred. I told him that he was mistaken upon that point, 
as Mr. Jenkins did not wish the nomination, on hearing which he 
informed me, to my amazement, that my co-delegate Seth Jenkins 
had within the hour applied to him to support his brother, and 
had, in reply to a suggestion from him about me, referred to my 
youth and recent settlement in the city as reasons why I ought 
not to be selected. Satisfied from the character of my informant 


ae er? 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. ‘31 


that there could be no mistake on his part I immediately addressed 
notes to the three gentlemen of the Committee inviting them to 
meet me in the evening. They came to my house at the time ap- 
pointed and I repeated to them what had passed at our previous 
interview, as I have stated it here, and then asked whether my 
statement was. correct. Mr. Seth Jenkins (who was the spokes- 
man throughout) answered affirmatively, but added that they had 
not at any time expressed themselves to the effect I had inferred, 
altho’ he freely admitted that my inference from what had been 
said was, under the circumstances, as right and fair as if they had ex- 
pressed themselves to that effect in terms. I then mentioned his con- 
versation on that day with Judge Wager, my account of which he 
admitted to be correct. I then asked him with much feeling on 
what possible ground he could justify himself in treating me in 


' So ungenerous a manner. He replied promptly that he would not 


attempt to deny that their course had in appearance been both dis- 
ingenuous and unkind, but he affirmed solemly that it had not 
proceeded from unfriendly motives, but that they had been con- 
trolled by circumstances which he might some day explain to me. 
and placed in a situation that put it out of their power to act 
otherwise and that they would have no reason to complain of 
any course I thought proper to take. I replied that they had 
left me no other choice than to obtain the nomination if in my 
power, which I should assuredly do, and we parted. The remain- 
ing members of the Committee were both honorable and upright 
men, incapable of an unworthy design. Mr. Jenkins had many 
of the good qualities of his race, but had besides an innate passion 
for political intrigue, and as I have almost always found to be 
the case with men subject to that infirmity, was neither skillful 
in his schemes or successful in their execution. His subsequent ex- 


planation was that he had entered into an arrangement with Mr. 


Van Ness that they would combine their strength against me, as- 
suming that I would be a candidate, and leave it to the convention 
to decide between his brother and Van Ness, and that he had been 
obliged to promise the latter that he would hold no communication 
with me upon the subject until they met again. But why such 
an understanding precluded him: from saying what would cer- 
tainly exclude me from the canvass he could never explain without 
conceding that they were certain of their game, and that they had 
a farther object, viz; to break down my influence in the county, 
which he was not willing to admit. 

The contest excited great interest, and the Convention was the 
most imposing in numbers and character that had ever been held in 
the county. The republican portion of the Livingston family sup- 


32 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. # 


ported Edward [P.] Livingston, and combined their opposition to 
me with the supporters of Jenkins and Van Ness, each willing that — 
the convention should nominate either of them so that I should be | 
excluded. I was chosen by a majority over all of them on the first — 
ballot. The election was severely contested. The federalists sup- 
ported Mr. Livingston, who had also a spurious republican nomina- — 
tion. Against me were arrayed the entire federal party, the Lewis- — 
ites, the Burrites, and the supporters of the Bank of America, who — 
had obtained its charter at a previous session of the Legislature, but ~ 
designed to procure from the next a reduction of the bonus they had — 
been obliged to promise to the State—a project they were well satis- — 
fied would be opposed by me. Our Senatorial district then embraced — 
a quarter of the State. Mr. Livingston and myself were the only — 
candidates in the field, and I was successful by a majority of less | 
than two hundred, the whole number of votes given being about — 
Forty thousand. Altho’ this was the actual result, much delay and — 
many unfavorable reports and contradictions preceded the final an- 
nunciation of my political birth and baptism. 

The annual election under the old Constitution took place in the ~ 
last week of April, and the Supreme Court of the State commenced ~ 
its spring session at the city of New York in the first week of May. — 
Thither flocked all the leading lawyers of the State, who were, in those — | 
days more even than now, also its prominent politicians, bringing 
with them the results of the elections in their several counties; we 
had then neither railroads, nor electric telegraphs, and the first week q 
or two of the Term was generally spent in anxious expectation and 
digestion of election reports. My district was mamly® composed 
of River Counties, lying on both sides of the North River, and there- — 
fore among the first to be heard from; still, when I left Hudson to 
attend the Term, it was generally conceded that I had been defeated. 
Whilst I was arranging my luggage and my papers, my opponents, 
headed by the leading men of my county, were celebrating their . 
supposed victory at the Hotel on the opposite side of the street, 
and when I left my door the most jubilant among them appeared — 
on the piazza and shed upon me, at parting, the light of their beam- 
ing countenances. On the steamboat I met the well known Ebenezer — 
Foot, an able lawyer and remarkable man of the day, always before | 
that time a Democrat, but then seduced from my side thro’ the in- — 
fluence of the Bank, who professed to sympathize with me in my 
defeat. While passing Catskill I perceived the tall figure of my | 
brother-in-law, Judge Cantine,! towering above the crowd, and point- | 
ing his finger at a small boat that was making towards us. When it 


° MS. I, p.°45. 1 Moses J. Cantine.—W. C, F. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 33 


reached us a letter was brought to me containing a canvass of the 
old republican county of Delaware which shewed that my majority 
in that county had been understated, and was in fact sufficient to 
render my election certain. I handed the letter to my sympathizing 
friend Counsellor Foot, whose countenance, notoriously not hand- 
some, supplied an amusing commentary upon his recent condolences. 
When the steamer arrived at New York, early on Sunday morning, 
Judge William W. Van Ness of the Supreme Court, a very distin- 
guished man, of whom I will have to speak hereafter, and Barent 
ardinier, a famous federal member of Congress during the War of 
1812, were standing arm in arm, on the wharf, and recognizing 
Thomas J. Oakley on the boat, they hailed him, and demanded to 
know the result of the election for Senator in the Middle District. 
His characteristic reply was that “Van Buren was on board, and 
‘they should ask him.” The Judge only said “Come Gardinier, let 
go,” and they walked off without farther question, but meeting 
erwards with a citizen of Rockland County, who gave him a can- 
_vass of its election different from the one theretofore conceded to 
"be correct, he came to my lodgings, and asked me what would be 
_the result if Rockland had given the vote he named, to which I re- 
plied that in that case Mr. Livingston was certainly elected. He 
gave me the name of his informant and kindly assured me that the 
information might be relied on. Having received the official Can- 
_yass from the county of Rockland, the next morning, I reciprocated 
Judge Van Ness’ polite attention, by enclosing it in a note which 
was delivered to him, whilst seated on the Bench, by that great man, 
in his way, High Constable Hays, and this ended all question on 
the subject. 

_ From this period to the expiration of my Presidential Term I 
‘occupied, without the intermission of a year, responsible official po- 
sitions either in the state or federal governments, two thirds of the 
time in the latter,—positions which made it my duty to take active 
part in the discussion and settlement of almost every public ques- 
tion, in conjunction with or in opposition to many of the distin- 
guished public men of the day. 

__ It is of those questions, and of the measures produced by them, — 
of the parts taken in regard to them by myself and by my con- 
_ temporaries, with my views of their characters and dispositions, that 
_I propose to speak. I design to state as well how those subjects 
presented themselves to me at the time, as how far my first impres- 
“sions have been changed or modified by subsequent experience or re- 
flection. © 

I would shew myself unfit for the performance of this task if I 
Were not deeply sensible of the obstacles to its satisfactory execu- 
127483°—voL 2—20—_3 


34 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


tion. To check the indulgence in egotism, to which human nature — 
is so prone, especially when it has the temptation and the excuse © 
of an auto-biography, so far as to make- what is said endurable; to ~ 
pronounce justly and impartially on matters in which we have been 
ourselves implicated and to speak with equal truth and candour of — 
contemporaries, whether they have been bound to us by political — 
agreement and personal ties, or separated from us by the lines and — 
perhaps by the asperities of party—areediflicult things. My best — 
efforts will however not be wanting to accomplish these objects, and 
my confidence in my ability to do so is founded on qualifications — 
of che heart rather than of the mind. My political opponents, at ~ 
every stage of my public life, have with great unanimity, and with 
no more than justice, conceded to me a rare exemption from that ' 
personal ill will which party differences are apt to engender, nor is — 
my breast now the abiding place of those morbid feelings and ad- — 
hesive prejudices so often cherished by public men who have been 
thwarted in their career. I feel that I have made efforts in sup- 
port of right principles which have failed, at times, either of being 
rightly understood or justly appreciated: a thing that has happened 
to every man who has aspired to an influence in the State. Yet it 
would be unjust in me not to admit, as I have elsewhere and always 
done, that my share of public honors has been greater than I could 
think myself entitled to by public services. The excess must be — 
credited to the generosity of political friends, seldom very accu- | 
rately proportioned to the merits of their favorites. : 


cm 


My confidence in the integrity of public opinion is at this moment 
as strong as it ever was, and my heart assures me that there lives not 
now and has not lived in our country a public man to whom I am 
not disposed to do justice. I may be mistaken as to facts and con- 
clusions and I may overrate my ability°to be impartial, but no 
ingenuous mind shall read what I write without acknowledging the 
purity of my intentions. I claim to be tolerably well acquainted 
with the workings of the human heart, and if I am not satisfied at 
the conclusion that the fruits of my present labours will bear this 
test, I will destroy them. 

Accounts of personal transactions with delineations of individual 
peculiarities of mind and manners constitute the usual staple of 
works of this description. It might seem on first view that in regard 
to political Memoirs it would afford more interest to explain the 
nature of the great questions that occupied the public mind, and to 
re-examine the discussions that grew out of them, during the period 
embraced by the writer. But such an impression must I think lose 
its force when it is considered that at the time when such memoirs 
are usually prepared those questions have generally been finally 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 35 


- settled in public opinion, have lost their importance or have been 
_ exhausted of their interest by re-iterated argumentation. The apathy 
_ and indifference which in such cases succeed to great interest, almost 
_ in proportion to its previous intensity, must be familiar to all observ- 
_ ing minds. But whilst our concern in public questions is thus, in 
_ the nature of things, doomed to die away, it is very different in 
regard to the conduct and motives of distinguished individuals who 
took part in them. These seem never to lose their fascination, and 
hence our curiosity is seldom wearied by recitals of events of even 
_ little importance, before unknown, in the lives of men who acquired 
notoriety in their day. Hence also a great part of our interest in 
accounts of stirring scenes which we know to be fictitious. 'The most 
attractive as well as the proper study of mankind is man—not only 
to gratify our curiosity but by instructing us in the nature and dis- 
_ positions of our fellow men, to increase our ability to perform well 
_ and successfully our own parts in the great drama of life. 


CHAPTER III. 


My Senatorial term commenced at a most critical period both of © 
the State and Nation. War had been declared against Great Britain | 
shortly after my election, and New York, as a frontier State. was 
destined to bear the brunt of the contest. ‘Hes extended frontier, as 
well by land’ as by sea, and the defenceless condition of both, cast 
a heavy responsibility on her Legislature. The Presidential elec- 
tion was close at hand, and the State had, with great unanimity 
put one of her most distinguished citizens in nomination for that — 
high office. In addition to these grave matters, the Bank mania was 
at its highest point, and the State violently excited by the employ- ’ 
ment of the most profligate means for its gratification. 

Neither the first nor the last of these subjects could cause me the — 
slightest embarrassment. I had, as a citizen, given my ardent sup- 
port to the preventive measures recommended by Jefferson and Madi- 
son, and regarded the declaration of war as a step indispensable to 
the maintenance of our National honor. No consideration, personal 
or political, could therefore withhold me from giving my aid to its — 
vigorous prosecution. I was always oppaees to the multiplication 
of ernie and throughout my eight years’ service in the State Senate, — 
voted against every application for a bank charter, save one at Buf- 
falo, the object of which was to aid in repairing the losses sustained 
by the destruction of that town by the enemy, and justified as being 
in some sense a war measure. 

Still more hostile to the bank corruptions so prevalent at the time, 
and against which I had successfully struggled in my election, 
nothing could be more congenial to my feelings and opinions than a 
cordial co-operation with all efforts to arrest the increase of banks, 
and to expose the guilty authors of those corruptions to the execra- 
tion of the People. 

My course in respect to the Presidential Question was, on the 
other hand, beset with serious difficulties. Mr. Madison had been 
nominated for re-election by a majority of the members of Congress 
—(then the usual method of making such nominations) and he was 
admitted by the Republicans, of every sort, to be an honest man and 
an accomplished Statesman. The Republican members of the New 
York Legislature had, however, before I became a member of that 
body, as T have already said, with great unanimity, presented Mr. 
Clinton as the opposing candidate, and had asked and obtained his 

36 Z 


4 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. my! 


assent to the proceeding. The impending danger of War,° and a 
supposed superior capacity on the part of Mr. Clinton to meet such 
_ a Crisis were among the reasons assigned for his nomination. To 
_ New Yorkers it was urged that the Legislature having placed him 
| in his then position, and no change having taken place save the 
_ actual declaration of War, the anticipation of which was one of the 
_ main reasons for his nomination, they owed it to their own and his 
honor to give him the vote of the State. I took my seat in the Senate 
_ for the first time at the Extra-session of the Legislature, held for 
the choice of Presidential Electors, and it was claimed that I stood 
_ in a position to which-these considerations applied. I yielded to 
_ their influence, but did so with undisguised reluctance, and with a 
_ determination, understood by all, that nothing should prevent me 
from giving my votes and influence in favor of a vigorous prosecu- 
tion of the War. Judge Hammond, in his Political History of New 
i York, places my motives upon the true groundt| That I acted in 
_ strict conformity to the wishes of my immediate constituents there 
+ was no doubt, and it is equally true that I conscientiously believed 
that I was acting in the line of my duty. But now, when the excite- 
ments of the day have passed away, and personal predilections have 
lost their influence upon the question, I am free to say that we all 
committed a great error. The rejection by the People of the Presi- 
dent who had recommended the War, in the absence of any act to 
show his incompetency, would have done more injury to the public 
service than could have been counter-balanced by the alleged supe- 
_ rior qualifications of Mr. Clinton for the crisis. This consideration 
should have induced Governor Clinton to decline the State nomina- 
tion, after the declaration of War, notwithstanding the ground upon 
which he had been put forward, and to unite with his friends in the 
support of Mr. Madison. His failure to do so was fatal to his na- 
tional aspirations, and many of his friends destroyed their political 
influence by adding disparagements of the War to their opposition 
to the candidate by whom its declaration had been recommended. 
But I reasoned differently then, or I might perhaps say more cor- 
rectly, felt differently, for my personal attachment to Mr. Clinton was 
strong and probably too much influenced my judgment. My course 
however, although wrong, was thus far entitled to the merit of dis- 
_ interestedness of motive, that I embarked in his support without a 
hope of success. Having heard of some remarks of mine indicative 
of this state of mind, addressed to a mutual and ardent friend at 
that very session, he called on me and said: “TI hear that you de- 
spair of the election.” [I admitted that I had made the observation 


; 
- 
| 
b 
f 
: 
a 


- 


— TS 


a 


SOL! Sa BS ee 1 Volume I, 321.—W. C. F. 


38 - AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 


to which he alluded, and proceeded to explain my views upon the ~ 
subject, which were in substance, that after what had taken place in ~ 
the spring, we had no other course to pursue than to give the vote of — 
the State to him, but that I fully believed it would be unavailing. ~ 
He then shewed me a calculation very favorable to his election, made ~ 
by a noted politician, that did not change my opinion though it had ~ 
evidently produced a strong impression on him, > 

Mr. Clinton had not on account of particular cireumstances — 
expected my support. These I will briefly state as they afford an — 
illustration of the danger of acting upon inferences be they ever so — 
plausible and the propriety of prompt explanations between political — 
friends. 

Whilst Judge Ambrose Spencer and myself were sitting together, — 


one evening, in the porch of Judge Richardson’s house, in Auburn, — 


Cayuga County, (at which place the former was holding a Circuit — 
Court which I was attending as Counsel), our letters were brought 
to us containing news of the death of Attorney General Hildreth.+ 


The Judge after a moments reflection, turned to me and said—* You + 


ought to be Hildreth’s successor ”—and at once tendered me his sup- 
port. I thanked him cordially, but expressed an apprehension that 
there were older members of the profession among our political — 
friends who would think themselves slighted by the appointment of 
so young a man. He controverted the supposition with his usual 
earnestness, and I promised to think of the matter. The Judge and 
myself were at the time upon very good terms, but in the then 
scarcely perceptible but still existing division in our party, between 
himself and the friends of Clinton I ranked among the latter, and 
I did not like to take a step in the matter suggested by Judge 
Spencer without consulting Mr. Clinton. On my return home I 
wrote to Mr, Richard Riker, then a confidential friend of Mr. Clin- 
ton, informing him of what had passed between the Judge and 
myself, and requesting him to converse with Mr. Clinton and to let 
me know his opinion upon the subject. I also asked him to say to 
Mr. Clinton that if he thought I was too young or if he desired the 
appointment of some other friend he should have no embarrassment 
about saying so, and might rest assured that I would be perfectly © 
satisfied. Mr. Riker informed me at once that Mr, Clinton was 
anxiously desirous of my appointment, and asked me to make no 
objections to having my name placed before the Council of Appoint- 
ment. An Extra-meeting of that body was called to fill the vacancy 
in the summer of 1812, and a friend, [Richard Riker] with my con- 
sent, called on and broached the subject to Alderman Gilbert, a 
leading member of the Council, and a particular friend of Mr. Clin- 


1Matthias B. Hildreth, of Johnstown.—W. C. F. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 39 


ton. My friend found him reserved and indisposed to converse 
farther on the subject than courtesy required. Inferring from the 
report of this conversation that Mr. Clinton had changed his views, 
_ I requested my friend to return at once and inform Mr. Gilbert that 
_ I wished my name to be considered as withdrawn. 

gy When I saw the appointment of Thomas Addis Emmet an- 
_ nounced I was confirmed in the correctness of my inference, and 
_ from that moment to the meeting of the Legislature for the baie 
_ of Electors I received no explanation either from Mr. Clinton o 
_ Mr. Riker. Knowing the friendly relations existing between Mr. 
_ Clinton and Mr. Emmet, and sensible of the partiality for him on 
_ the part of our Irish citizens, I would at the latest moment have 
consented to the appointment of Mr. Emmet if Mr. Clinton had 
_ informed me of his wishes, but I felt injured by his silence. 

_ After the Electors were chosen, in a manner and with a result 
very gratifying to him, Mr. Clinton asked me to spend the evening 
_ with him. Other visitors were denied admission, and whilst we 
_ were at tea he introduced the subject of the appointment to the 
- office of Attorney General, and said he feared that I had thought 
hardly of him in regard to it. I explained my feelings to him as 
I have done above, and he then assured me in a very solemn man- 
ner that he had no agency, direct or indirect, in causing the ap- 
_ pointment of Mr. Emmet. He admitted that from Mr. Gilbert’s 
_ conduct and from the fact that the Council were all his particular 
_ friends, I had a right to draw the inferences I had drawn, but 
_ that they were nevertheless entirely unfounded. Although bound 
_ to believe from this @xplanation that Mr. Clinton had not himself 
taken any part in the matter, I could not yet dismiss from my mind 
_ the impression that the affair had been so managed by some of 
_his friends as to produce the result without connecting him with it. 
_ This subject will again be noticed by me. 
_ A brief relation of the interior history of a contest which ex- 
_ cited great attention and effort at the time, and has never been 
_ forgotten in the States may even now, not be without interest. The 
_ friends of Mr. Clinton, in whom I confided and with whom I con- 
_ sulted, decided at the beginning to avoid throughout any inter- 
_ course or arrangement with the federalists in regard to their 
course. If we could get the vote of the state for him, without 
entering into or sanctioning a concerted coalition with them he 


_ 21The members of the Council of Appointment were William W. Gilbert, of the southern; 
_ Johannes Bruyn, of the middle: Henry Yates, Jun, of the eastern; and Francis A. Blood- 
good, of the western districts. “This council was decidedly Clintonian; but the party 
_ decrees having been carried into effect by the preceding council, little remained to be 
done by this. Such appointments, however as were made, were made in accordance with 
_ the wishes and views of Mr. Clinton.” Hammond History of Political Parties. in the 
= State of New York, I, 304.—W. C. F. 


40 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


should have it. If not, the matter should be allowed to shape its 
own course. All we desired therefore was to place a ticket of 
Electors before the joint Convention of the two houses of the Legis- 
lature, in whole or in part (according® to the action of the Madi- ~ 
sonians) favorable to Mr. Clinton, and to leave it to the option of — 
the Federalists, without explanation or solicitation, either to vote 
for it, or to elect their own, if they could, by the aid of the Madi- 
sonians, or to make themselves a Madisonian ticket and elect that 
by combining their votes with those of the friends of Mr. Madison. 
One of these courses they would be obliged to pursue. We had a 
majority in the Senate over both Federalists and Madisonians, and 
of course the power of forming as we pleased one of the tickets to 
be submitted to the joint convention. The Federalists had a simi- 
lar preponderance in the lower house, with, of course, like power. 
The question between us and the Madisciieee in regard to the 
composition of the Republican Ticket could only be settled in Cau- 
cus, where we had a decided majority over them. The venerable 
Judge Taylor, always before and soon after again a Clintonian, 
though now warmly opposed to him, was, on my motion, made 
Chairman of the Caucus. We offered at once to give them a portion 
of the ticket equal to their proportion of representatives in the 
Legislature compared with ours, and to elect the Ticket by our 
joint vote. This offer was peremptorily and perseveringly refused, 
and no proposition made in lieu of it that had even a shew of 
fairness to support it. After a very protracted discussion, and 
when it had become evident that no equitable compromise could 
be effected, I moved that an entire Clintontan ticket should be 
nominated. The Chairman called me to him and asked under 
great excitement whether I intended to persist in that motion. I 
replied “Certainly! unless the Madisonians will accept of a rea- 
sonable portion of the ticket.” Upon this the Veteran put his 
large brimmed hat that was lying by his side, on his head, rose from 
the chair without another word to the meeting, called out “Lew! 
Boy!” to his servant, and in a few moments the jingling of his 
sleigh bells notified us that he was on his way home. Judge Hum- 
phreys, of Onandaga, was, aiter a brief pause, called to the chair, 
and my motion was adopted by a decided majority—after which 
matters proceeded quietly to their consummation. Two tickets 
only were before the joint meeting of the two houses, to wit, the 
Clintonian from the Senate, and the Federal from the House of 
Assembly; the Madisonian being driven to a choice between them. 
Many of them voted blank ballots, and some thirty six out of sixty 


° MS. I, p. 55. 


eee Ee ee Pe OE Ces 


ee eS ee 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 41 


one (the whole number of their members) voted for our ticket and 
elected it. 

Whatever objection may have existed against our support of 
Mr. Clinton, none can, I think, be made against the manner in which 
our determined course was carried out. We acted upon a principle 
that we believed to be sound, avowed it openly and sustained it 
firmly. So free were we from intriguing with the Federalists, that 
no charge or insinuation to that effect has ever been made even 
against me, whose whole life has been since so closely canvassed 
for matters of accusation by an untiring throng of opponents. 

The session having been called for the purpose of appointing 
Electors only, no other business was done. Altho’ the youngest 
man, and one of the youngest members of the body, I was placed 
at the head of the Committee to report the answer of the Senate 
to the Governor’s Speech, which having been adopted and presented. 
the Legislature adjourned to the 1st day of January 1813. 

There were occurrences prior in date, but connected with these 
transactions, which from their relation to distinguished individ- 
uals and the light they shed upon the private history of the times, 
are not without interest. A short time before the Extra session, 
William King, of Maine, an enterprising and not over-scrupulous 
politician, visited Albany to prevail upon the friends of Mr. Clinton, 
to withdraw his name from the Canvass. He very naturally ad- 
dressed himself to Judge Ambrose Spencer, the brother-in-law of Mr. 
Clinton, and to Judge Taylor, an ancient friend and adherent of his 
family. These gentlemen addressed a letter to Mr. Riker, advising a 


_ compliance with the suggestion of Mr. King. The advice was good 


but badly received by Mr. Clinton who regarded King as an emissary 
of the Administration at Washington, sent to tamper with his 
friends, and became indignant at this evidence of his success. It is 
quite certain that Mr. Madison Imew nothing of the affair, and the 
mission, most probably, had its origin in Mr. King’s passion for in- 
trigue, stimulated by the hope of increasing his influence with the 
Administration. 

The “American Citizen” a newspaper then edited by William 
Lucius Rose, and previously by the more famous James Cheetham, 
after the letter to Riker, commenced a series of pungent and well 
written attacks upon Judge Spencer, entitled the “ Ambrosiad.” In 
these the Judge’s early life on his father’s farm at Ancram, was, 
with other matters, lampooned in Mr. Clinton’s happiest style. I 


happened to be at the time attending a Term of the Supreme Court 


+See Hammond, History of Political Parties in’ the State of New York, ap 321.— 
We Cor. 


42 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


at New York, and lodged at the same house* with the Judge and — 
General John Armstrong, then Secretary of War under Madison, 
who had been Judge Spencer’s early and constant friend, and was — 
supposed to have been instrumental in inducing him to secede from — 
the Federal ranks. The General had been quite as constant in his — 
enmity to Mr. Clinton, and was the conceded author of a pamphlet — 
attacking his private character, in which he referred to the “rubric — 
of his countenance” as “ indicating the Deity he adored!” and to his — 
friends as the “ Brotherhood of hope”—; a pamphlet that shewed 
by its talent and bitterness that the pen that had indited the “New- — 
burgh letters” at the close of the Revolutionary War, had lost none — 
of its pungency or venom. His disposition was eminently pugna- 
cious, and he did not attempt to conceal either his satisfaction at 
the rupture between the distinguished brothers-in-law, or his indis- 
position to appease the quarrel. 

The fourth number of the “Ambrosiad” was announced for the — 
next day. Seeing the extent to which the Judge was annoyed by 
these provoking Articles, and regretting, in common with most of — 
our political friends, the schism that had arisen between two of our — 
strongest men, I visited Mr. Clinton in the evening in the hope of 
being able' to prevent its appearance. He received me kindly, but 
was at first very reserved in his conversation. I found no diffi- 
culty in attributing this unusual circumstance to an apprehension — 
that he had offended me in the affair of the Attorney Generalship, 
and a consequent belief that I was no longer his friend—an impres- 
sion doubtless greatly strengthened by the fact of my intimacy with 
Spencer and Armstrong. I introduced the subject of the Presi- 
dential election first; assigned the reasons by which I was influenced, 
as I have done here, expressed my regret that the Republican mem- 
bers had placed him in the position he occupied, but closed with an 
avowal of my determination to sustain him in the contest, and to vote 
for Electors favourable to him. He was evidently both disappointed 
and gratified by my communication, listened readily to what I had 
to say upon the subject that occasioned my visit and spoke of it with- 
out reserve, save only that he professed entire ignorance of the Au- 
thor of the “Ambrosiad.” This I was satisfied he did not expect — 
me to believe. He assured me that I was mistaken as to Judge 
Spencer’s regret at the separation,—that he had with his eye open 
and to subserve his own personal ends gone into the support of Mr. 
Madison, and had it not in his power to return. I did not concur 
in that opinion, but urged strongly the inutility of these attacks upon 
either supposition, and earnestly invoked his interference for their 


2 A popular boarding house kept by Mrs. Keese, on the north corner of Broadway and 
Wall Streets. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 43 


‘suppression. At this stage of our conversation his friend Preserved 
Fish, entered, remained a short time, and_left us under the impres- 
sion that we desired to be alone; Mr. Clinton followed him out of 
_ the room, and remained out some minutes. On his return I rose 
_ to depart when he referred again to the subject, repeating much of 
_ what he had said in regard to the state of Judge Spencer’s mind, but 
_ expressed a hope that Mr. Rose might be induced to suspend the 
publication of the “Ambrosiad” at least long enough to satisfy me 
that there was no use in forbearance. He said this in a way that 
convinced me that he had commissioned Mr. Fish to procure such 
-asuspension. On the following morning there was of course much 
_ curiosity to see the “Citizen,” and Mr. Rosst of Newburgh, a State 
Senator, and a friend to both Clinton and Spencer went to the 
_Barber’s shop—that immemorial news market—for that purpose. 
We were all assembled at breakfast when he returned ° and he was 
immediately interrogated as to the contents of the “Citizen.” He 
_ replied that the promised number was not in it, or alluded to. Arm- 
_ strong promptly demanded “ What is in it?” and on being told that 
the paper contained Riker’s answer to Judges Spencer and Tay- 
_ lor, which was very severe, exclaimed “Ah! only a change of dish! 
_ Good policy that! Tomorrow we shall have the “ Ambrosiad” 
again!” Upon this Judge Spencer said with emphasis and con- 
_ siderable formality that it was quite immaterial whether the abusive 
article did or did not appear, as Mr. Clinton had already gone too 
_ far to make his future course of any consequence in regard to their 
_ personal relations. It never occurred to me to speak to Mr. Clinton 
_ upon the subject during the short period of our subsequent intimacy 
but I never doubted that some one of the company at the table, which 
Was numerous, informed him of Judge Spencer’s observation. The 
suspended number appeared a few days afterwards and was fol- 
lowed by articles from the same pen, published at Albany as well 
__as New York, in which the Judge’s feelings were cruelly lacerated. 
These were in turn resented by him in verbal denunciations of un- 
equaled harshness. In this way a furious warfare between them 
_ was kept up for about three years disgraceful to their personal re- 
lations and in the highest degree discreditable to political contro- 
_versy. 

__ Mr. Madison was elected to the Presidency by a large majority; a 
_ result well calculated to call into vigorous action the energies of the 
- country and to show to the enemy that the War was national. The 
- dispositions of nearly all the Republican members of the Legisla- 
- ture were in favor of aiding the Federal Government in support of 
_ the War by all the means in their power. The course of the federal 


1 William Ross. °MS.I, p.60. * 


44 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


majority in the House of Assembly was, on the other hand, one of — 
uncompromising, and, it isnot too much to say, of reckless opposition. — 
All hopes of peace had disappeared, and the National Government — 
was in want of means. State co-operation was the readiest aid that ~ 
presented itself, and a resolution was offered in the Senate, propos- — 
ing a loan by the State to the National Treasury of half a million of — 
Dollars, which I supported. After a violent debate, in which Morgan ~ 
Lewis and Erastus Root took active and honorable parts, it passed 
the Senate by a party vote, but was rejected by a similar division 
in the lower House. The same course was pursued by the latter body 
in respect to every measure of the Senate designed for the support 
of the War. These differences led to repeated public conferences ~ 
between the two Houses, in which their respective views were pre- 
sented by Committees, chosen by the majorities in each, in the pres- — 
ence of multitudes of the People. I was on every occasion a member 
of the Committee on the part of the Senate; and although these de- 
bates in no instance produced the change of a vote in either House, 
they exerted a very salutary influence upon the public mind. The 
feelings of the members, as also of the audience, frequently became 
highly excited. On one occasion Judge Hager,’ an honest German 
and Republican Senator from Schoharie, stepped forward, at the 
close of my speech, and carried away by his feelings, embraced and 
kissed me, and thanked me in the presence of the two Houses. A 
Committee of the Republicans of Albany called.on me, by appoint- 
ment the same evening for a copy of my speech for publication, 
which I could not give them as I had spoken from a few hasty 
notes and had not time to write it out. 

The Bank of America, which had obtained its charter at the 
previous session, now applied for a reduction of the\bonus it had 
stipulated to pay to the State. This had purposely been made larger 
than they could afford to pay to screen the members who voted 
for the Charter, from the resentments of their constituents. The 
subject produced a violent debate, and the failure of the project 
in the Senate was, for a time, probable. Whilst I was speaking on 
a motion I had made for its rejection, the Chairman, Mr. Parris, 
fell back on his seat from an attack of vertigo, and the Senate was 
forced to adjourn. On the followmg morning the Senate received — 
information of the death of Chancellor Livingston, with an imvita- | 
tion to attend his funeral. This caused an adjournment for two ~ 
days, during which time the lobby succeeded in securing votes 
enough to make the passage of the bill certain.’ 


1Henry Hager.—W. C. F. 

2 Daniel Parris.—W. C. F. 

’See Hammond, History of Political Parties in the State of New York, I, 296.— 
Wie. Cs i. . i 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 45 


The election of United States Senator, which caused a final 
political separation between Mr. Clinton and myself was made at 
_ this session.- I was alarmed by the confidence shewn by the Federal- 
ists in the election of Rufus King, notwithstanding the Republican 
_ Majority in the Legislature, and was induced to suspect an intrigue 
_ between them and a portion of Mr. Clinton’s friends to secure the 
_yotes of the latter for Mr. King. These gentlemen had voted for 
_ the Bank of America, and, to divert public attention from their de- 
_ linquency in that reSard, were, on all occasions, the loudest in their 
_ devotion to Mr. Clinton. Finding them reserved in conversation 
on the Senatorial question, I called on Mr. Clinton, apprised him 
of my suspicions and remonstrated earnestly against what I feared 
would be their course. I urged that the election of Mr. King by 
their votes would expose his (Mr. C’s) friends to the suspicion of 
_ having intrigued with the Federalists, and having promised them 
the Senatorship as a consideration for their votes in his favor for 
the Presidency, and insisted that we had a right to ask his active 
interference to protect us against such a result. He concurred with 
me entirely as to the great impropriety of such a step on the part 
of any of his friends, assured me in so earnest a manner that my 
suspicions were unfounded, and promised his attention to the sub- 
ject so readily, that I returned to my room not only satisfied of 
my error, but under no small degree of self reproach. To increase 
the certainty of our getting the votes of all his friends, I made my- 
self instrumental in securing the nomination of James W. Wilkin 
as our Candidate, an old friend of Mr. Clinton and the Chairman 
_ of the Legislative Convention by which he had been nominated for 
the Presidency. At the viva-voce nomination in each House every 
Republican member then acting with the party named Mr. Wilkin. 
and he received a majority of the entire Legislature. The House 
having a majority of Federalists nominated Mr. King and the 
Senate Mr. Wilkin. When the balloting commenced in joint-meet- 
ing, Ruggles Hubbard a Senator, and always an enthusiastic friend 
of Mr. Clinton, asked me to write his ballot and to accompany him 
to the Chair to see him deposit it in the box. Supposing him to be 
_ influenced by the suspicions entertained by myself, I assured him 
_ that they were groundless, and that all would be right. He shook 
his head, and said “I ask you but a small favor and I hope you 
will not refuse to grant it.” 

Moved by the earnestness of his manner I wrote his ballot and 
saw him put it in the box. When the ballots were counted it ap- 
peared that Gen. Wilkin was defeated. There was immediately a 
report put in circulation that the few Lewisites in the Legislature 
(who put in blank ballots) had yoted for King. Knowing the in- 


Pend 


46 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


timacy that had existed between Mr. Hubbard and the men I origi- 
nally suspected I was morally certain that they had acted as I 
feared they would act. When we returned to the Senate chamber, 
Mr. Clinton approached me and said “T hope you no longer enter- 
tain the suspicion you spoke of.” My reply was “No!” at which ~ 
he expressed his satisfaction. I then said gravely, “Mr. Clinton, 
you must not misunderstand me. My suspicions have become con- — 
victions. I know that the men I pointed out to you have done this - 
deed.” He replied, under evident excitement, that he believed I did 
them great injustice; and at that moment the Secretary apprised — 
- him that they were waiting for him to organize the Senate. He took — 
the chair, made his Report, and adjourned the body. j 
Nothing further passed between us until the day the evening of — 
which had been appointed for holding the Republican caucus for — 
the nomination of candidates for the offices of Governor and Lieu- 
tenant Governor, when at a brief interview, held at my request, I 
‘referred to the business of the evening. He asked what I supposed — 
would be done. I told him an attempt would be made to nominate — 
Judge Taylor in his place as Lieut. Governor. In reply to his en- — 
quiry as to my opinion of the result of such an attempt, I told him — 
that it was my intention, if he did not object, to propose his name — 
for a re-nomination, but that I thought there was reason to fear, — 
from the prevalent feeling in the party, that it would be rejected, — 
upon which he asked quickly whether I would submit to the nomina- 
tion of Taylor. I answered, as promptly, “Certainly!° if it is — 
fairly made.” After a moment’s pause he bowed respectfully, left — 
me, and resumed the Chair. From that day we never met as polit- 
ical friends, altho’ our personal relations afterwards became familiar 
and kind and continued so till his death. In the caucus there was a _ 
great deal of feeling exhibited; an apparent determination on the 
part of the majority to vote against his nomination, but, so far as 
I could see, a general disposition to bring the question to that result 
without giving unnecessary offense. For some time no one seemed 
inclined to move in the matter. At length a motion was made for 
the joint nomination of Tompkins and Taylor, the first for Goy- 
ernor and the last for Lieut-Governor. As the motion was not ac- ~ 
companied by any remarks I was obliged to introduce the subject 
myself, which I did in a speech of considerable length which was 
listened to with interest and received with kindness. I referred to 
the dissatisfaction that prevailed in our ranks in consequence of the 
recent appointment of Senator, admitted that from all I knew on 
the subject I felt obliged to concur in that sentiment; that I had 
notwithstanding brought my own mind to the conclusion that it 


1See Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, V, 291.—W. C.F. ° MS. I, p. 65. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 47 


would be expedient in view of the condition of the country and of 


__ the honorable position that Mr. Clinton had long occupied in the 


party to tender him a renomination; that I would do this under 
a full conviction that Mr. Clinton would not accept the nomination 
unless he was sincerely desirous to act with us in the future; that 
our party was powerful and had always been magnanimous; that 
I would be gratified if a majority of the meeting should concur with 


me in these sentiments, but that if I was so unfortunate as to fail 


in this, I would support cheerfully and heartily the candidate of 
their choice. I then moved to substitute the name of Mr. Clinton 
for that of Judge Taylor. I was followed by the gallant Gen. 
Leavenworth, of the Assembly, who, tho’ a law-partner and warm 
friend of Gen. Root, who was at that time a leader of the opposi- 
tion to Clinton, supported my motion in a very impressive speech. 
He appreciated and applauded the grounds on which I had proposed 
the re-nomination, and sustained them with'a zeal and earnestness 
that obtained for him credit and a kind reception from all present. 
My recollection is very distinct of the favorable impression made 
upon me by the absence of anything like violent attack upon Mr. 


_ Clinton. Upon the ballot Mr. Clinton received sixteen votes, and 


Taylor thirty two. Tompkins and Taylor were then nominated, and 
a Committee having been appointed to prepare an Address to the 
People, I was made Chairman and wrote the Address It contained 
a full review of the matters in controversy between Great Britain 
and ourselves, and was extensively published at the time and after- 
wards and very well received by the public. J udge Spencer in the 
warmth and I should add in the excess of his admiration called it 
a second Declaration of Independence. 

The Federalists nominated Stephen Van Rensselaer for Governor 
and James Huntington for Lieut. Governor. A number of Mr. 
Clinton’s prominent friends, including such names as those of Gen- 
erals German and Van Courtlandt came out with an address in 
which they severely censured the administration of Mr. Madison, 
and protested against the support of Tompkins. My course on the 
occasion caused a final political separation between my early friend 
John C. Hogeboom and myself, He was a clear headed and strong 


_ minded man, and always an ardent friend of Mr. Clinton, who cor- 


dially reciprocated his regard. He had taken an early interest in 


_ my success, and I fortunately had it in my power to make him ample 
_ returns for his friendly offices before his death. We had a warm 
_ correspondence upon the subject of supporting Tompkins which 
ended in a settled difference of opinion. When he saw that I was 
_ designated to write the Address, he came to Albany to dissuade me 


*The autograph draft of this Address is in the Van Buren Papers in the Library of 


_ Congress under date of 1813, March. 


48 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


from doing so. He insisted that the prominent part I was taking 
in favor of Tompkins was inconsistent with the friendly relations 
that had so long existed between Mr. Clinton, himself and myself, y 
and that a proper respect for those relations demanded that my posi 3 
‘tion, if not that of a Neutrai, should at least be one of great reserve. — 
T assured him that neither Mr. Clinton nor himself could feel more — 
strongly than myself in regard to those relations but that I could 
not allow them to control my action in the way he proposed; that — 
the support of Tompkins was the support of the War—in which — 
cause I was engaged with all my heart and all my mind, and to which ~ 
all my energies should be applied regardless of personal conse: — 
quences. Seeing that he could not divert me from the course I had — 
determined to pursue, he left me under great excitement and forth- — 
with commenced a warfare embracing affairs of business as well as — 
politics, that lasted for several years. Family connexion—my 
brother having married his daughter—and his advancing years ulti- 4 
mately brought him to a better state of feelmg, which I eagerly ~ 
reciprocated and our personal relations continued thence forward — 
friendly during his life. 4 
IT was well aware of the inconsistency of my offer to support Mr. 
Clinton for re-election te the office of Lieut. Governor with the con- — 
clusive opinions I then entertained of his course in relation to the 
appointment of Senator, and with the bad treatment I believed 
myself to have received from him individually. But lingering at-_ 
tachments and the dread of being supposed capable of abandoning 
an old friend, and a great man in the then depressed state of his — 
political fortunes had, I am free to confess, more influence upon 
my course than political justice or perhaps, to some extent at least, 
than a a proper self respect. This disinclination to abandon a politi- 
cal friend in adversity has been with me a prevailing sentiment, and 
has been strengthened instead of weakened by the prevalence of a 
contrary disposition on the part of many from whom I had ex+ — 
pected better things. I cannot bring my mind to the conclusion that 
Mr. Clinton himself entered into, or directly sanctioned such an 
understanding with the Federalists as that I have referred to, but I 
had at the time no doubt that, in the state of mind to ee the 
loss of the Presidential election had brought him, aggravated by the 
apparent hopelessness of his ever regaining the confidence of the Re- 
publican Party, he suffered, by not attempting to prevent it, a suffi- 
cient number of his friends to deceive the party with which they 
professed to act, and to turn the election in favor of Mr. King. Judge 
Hammond? thinks that the Clintonian votes for Mr. King were — 
promised to the Federalists by Thomas and Southwick, the agents of — 


1 Political History of New York. 


. =~ 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 49 


the Bank of America, to promote the passage of its charter. It is 
_ very possible that the Federalists, altho’ they would have supported 
_ that bill in any event, imposed this tribute upon the agents. Thomas 
_ Was a man of great address, and very unscrupulous. He may have | 
- Taanaged the whole affair eekeet letting Mr. Clinton know any- 
_ thing about it. The supposition is not in harmony with cotempo- 
4 “yaneous and following events—but may notwithstanding be true. In- 
_ structed by a subsequent disclosure (applicable also to Mr. Clinton) 
how easy it is to be mistaken in similar matters, I pass from the 
subject without expressing or even entertaining a decided opinion 
_ in regard to it! 
The election of 1813 fortunately continued in his place the patri- 
_ otic Tompkins but the federalists again succeeded in obtaining a 
majority in the House of Assembly. We were therefore feed to 
struggle thro’ another session without the ability to render any essen- 
tial aid to the public cause. The indecorous violence of their answer 
to the Governor’s speech (then the authentic exponent of party 
i feelings) and of their speeches in support of it, exceeded those of the 
last session. They perseveringly refused to concur in any measure 
designed to support the war, and the session wore away in unavailing 
efforts on our part to strengthen the national arm, and in public 
conferences, in which the People took an increased interest, and 
; 
q 


which, tho’ still fruitless in the Legislature, had a happy TES in 
preparing the public mind for the election of 1814. The spirit that 
actuated our opponents in the Assembly governed also the action of 
_ the same party in Congress, and in most if not all the State Legis- 
3 Intures, but most violently in the Eastern States. There matters 
were apparently in rapid progress which would tender to the Fed- 
- eral Government the alternative of a discreditable peace or a separa- 
tion of the Union. It is believed that the subsequent peace alone, 
the news of which met the agents of the Hartford Convention on 
_ their way to Washington, saved that section from the full develop- 
ment of a treasonable design. 
_ This humiliating state of things was discouraging to the sup- 
rters of the War, but they did not despair. To remove as far as 
ossible the general gloom, a meeting was called of the members of the 
Legislature,° the Republicans of Albany, and those from the country 
who might then be at the seat of sessed It convened at the 
Capitol on the evening of April 14th 1814, and was well attended. 
altho’ I can never forget the painful anxiety and apparent despond- 


x 1 Clinton, however, did conduct an intrigue with the Federalists in New York and in 
other States. The story is told in the memorandum printed in Life and Correspond- 
ence of Rufus King, V, 264 and subsequent pages. Some additional facts are given in 
Hammond, History of Political Parties in the State of New York, I, 315.—W. C. F. 

° MS. I, p. 70. 


127483°—voL 2—20——-4 


50 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


ency visible on the countenances of those who composed it. I en- 
deavoured to revive their spirits and rekindle their confidence in a 
speech of considerable length. Whilst speaking I was struck with 
the excited countenance of a stranger to me, wearing a fur cap and 
not distant from me in the crowd. When I closed, he took off his 
cap and without moving from his position, made a speech which by 
the remarkable sweetness of his voice, the grace and ease of his elo- 
cution, and the sanguine and inspiriting character of his remarks 
produced a thrilling effect upon the meeting. I soon ascertained 
that this was Peter R. Livingston, the son-in-law of Chancellor Liv- 
ingston, who had that evening arrived in Albany as the Chancellor’s 
agent to oppose Governor Ogden’s petition to the Legislature. 
I thanked him heartily for his opportune and effective speech, and 
have not suffered the favorable impression he made upon me that — 
night to be effaced by his subsequent unfriendly dispositions. As 
soon as he closed I offered a series of Resolations, which were passed 

by acclamation, and the meeting broke up in excellent spirits. 

I give a few brief extracts from the Resolutions to shew the 
temper of the time, and the plainness of speech by which it was 
characterized : 

At this interesting period of our National Affairs, when our government is 
combating with a wily, vindictive, and sanguinary foe; when domestic disaffec- 
tion and foreign partialities present their callous fronts at every corner and 
when the present hopes and future prospects of the people of New York are 
to be tested by the exercise of the elective franchise,—at a period of such 
anxiety and solicitude this meeting composed of citizens from almost every | 
section of the State take the liberty of publicly expressing their sentiments on — 
the subject. | 

That “every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle ”—that on 
the various operations of government with which the publie welfare are 
connected an honest difference of opinion may exist—that when those differ- 


ences are discussed and the principles of contending parties [sought to be] are 


supported with candor, fairness and moderation, the very discord which is 
thus produced, may in a government like ours, be conducive to the public 
good—we cheerfully admit. 

But that when on the other hand, the opposition deay evince, that all their 
clamors are the result of predetermined and immutable hostility that, as 
between their own government and the open enemies of the land, they dare, 
as circumstances may require, unblushingly justify excuse or palliate the 
conduct of the latter and falsify, calumniate and condemn that of the 
former; when too in the means which are used to effect such unhallowed 
purposes, they are alike indifferent to the salutary provisions of the Constitu- 
tion, to the requisitions of national interest, or the obvious dictates of national 
honor—that at such a time it is the duty of every sound patriot, to do his 
utmost to arrest their guilty career, and to rescue from their aspiring grasp 
his bleeding country—no good man will deny. 

To prove that such has been the conduct, and that such are and have been the 
views of the party in this country which styles itself Federal—that their 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAR BUREN. 51 
z ' 


“history is a history of repeated injuries ané usurpations all having for 
their [direct] object,’ either the subjection of the rights and interests of their 
country to her ancient and unceasing foe, or a base prostitution of its fair 
fame for selfish and ambitious purposes “let facts be submitted to an in- 
telligent and patriotic people.” 5 

Their opposition for the last thirteen years, has been universal, malignant 
and unceasing: their opposition was equally virulent When our country was 
basking in the sunshine of unparalleled prosperity, as it has been while her 
political horizon has been obscured by the clouds of adversity :. 

They opposed the abolition of [direct and] internal taxes when those taxes 
were rendered unnecessary by the general prosperity of the country: they 
opposed the imposition of the same taxes when their imposition became 
necessary to the maintenance of our National honor: 

They opposed the reduction of the National debt, when the means of its 
reduction were in the power of the government: they opposed the increase of 
the national debt, when its increase, or an abandonment of every attribute of 
a free people, had become our only alternative: they clamored much on 
account of the aggressions on our commerce by the belligerents, and their 
Merchants presented petition after petition, and memorial after memorial, to 
Congress, that they should vindicate our commercial rights: they have uni- 
formly calumniated and opposed every measure of the government adopted 
for their vindication or support: they opposed [and evaded] all commercial 
restrictions on the ground of their inefficacy, and that war, and war alone 
was the proper course for government to pursue, and on this subject they 
triumphantly declared “that the Administration could not be kicked into a 
war”: they opposed the war when it was declared on the ground that it was 
impolitic, unjust, and unnecessary : 

They have always claimed to be the friends of order and the constitution, 
and as such friends of order and the constitution, their opposition to govern- 
Ment, in the prosecution of the present just and necessary war, has been 
characterized by acts of violence, degeneracy and depravity without a parallel 
in the history of any civilized government on earth. F 

To enumerate the various acts with which the feelings of the American 
people have been wounded and insulted, the occasion will not admit of: Let 
their most prominent acts therefore, be alone considered. While the [un- 
divided] combined power of the enemy and his Savage allies has been directed 
against us, and our frontiers drenched with blood of unoffending women and 
children, the undivided powers of the opposition have been exerted 

To destroy all confidence between the people and their government. 

To misrepresent the latter, and to deceive, distract and cajole the former. 

To deprive the government of the two great sinews of war—men and money :— 
preventing enlistments by discountenancing and calumniating both officers and 
soldiers— 

Defeating the necessary loans, by attempting to shake the confidence of the 
people in the stability of the government: 

To render the war odious and unpopular— 

By the most flagrant perversions of the matters in controversy, and the 
pretensions of our government; 

By the most criminal justification of the conduct of the enemy and the 
-vilest extenuation of all their enormities; 

_ To paralize the arm of the government and frighten the weak and timid 
from its support— 
By exciting insurrection and rebellion in the east ; 


iis 


i 


52 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


By openly threatening a dissolution of the union, and laboring incess 
to sow the seeds of Jealousy and disunion between the northern and southe 
states; and eo 

By exercising in each state the same unworthy means as are deed b3 
them throughout the union. d 

For while in this State they profess great solicitude for the sufferings of ou 
citizens on the frontiers; they have inveterately opposed the raising a volunt 
corps for their defence unless under the disgraceful stipulation,—that they 
shall not annoy the enemy—while also they seek to hide the deformity of th 


because it had for its object to harass the enemy. , 

But we forbear the disgusting enumeration of acts so evincive of a deplorable 
degeneracy of a great portion of the American people, so well calculated to 
continue the war into which our country has been driven—to tarnish our 
national character and (unless successfully resisted) to drive our government 
to an injurious and disgraceful peace: ‘ 


Lopes revival of the iene sentiments, and spirit of the revolution which is 
every where manifesting itself; and our republican brethren in particular, 1 
the heart cheering zeal and unanimity which pervades their ranks, which prom- 
ises the total overthrow of that Anti American spirit which disguised under the 
specious garb of Federalism, has too long preyed upon the vitals of the nation- = 
which excites a lively hope that the councils of this great and powerful state 
will speedily be wholly rescued from the hands of those who have disgrace a 
them— ; a 

We warmly and earnestly conjure our Republican brethren, by the regard 
they have for their own rights; by the love they bear their country, and by the 
names of the departed worthies of the revolution, to be up and doing, and so to 
act that at the termination of the contest, each of them may triumphantly 
exclaim—‘ I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course—I have kept 
the faith.” 1 : ' 4 
DANIEL WARNER Cha’n © 
P G Curips Sec’ry. ; 


\4 


1A copy of the Notes and Resolutions of this meeting, together with Van Buren’s auto- 
graph draft of the Resolutions, are in the Van Buren Papers, 1814, April 14. 


CHAPTER IV. 


_ The election of 1814 which followed in a few weeks was the most 
important of any ever held in the State, and resulted in the complete | 
humiliation of our opponents by a triumph that gladdened the 
heart of every patriot in the land. We, for the first time since 
the declaration of War elected not only a large majority of our 
Members of Congress, but majorities also in both Houses of the 
Legislature, and thus secured our ascendancy in every branch of 
the Government. In the succeeding month of August the enemy 
captured the city of Washington, burned the Capitol and other 
public buildings, and drove the President and his Cabinet from the 
Seat of Government. The regret occasioned by this event—this 
desecration of our most consecrated spot by the ruthless tread of 
hostile steps—was in no small degree relieved by the knowledge 
that New York had been rescued from the hands of an unrelenting 
faction, and might now be relied on to furnish efficient aid to the 
general Cause. 

The attention of the friends of the Country in all directions was 
therefore turned to Tompkins and the great State over which he 
presided. He did not disappoint their expectations but called an 
Extra-Session of the Legislature in the month of August,’ and 
spread before it in an eloquent and patriotic Speech the actual 
condition of the Country—invoking its aid to support the National 
Arm. Never did a Legislative body assemble under circumstances 
of deeper interest, never one more solemnly impressed with a sense 
f the responsibilities resting upon it, never one more firmly and 
disinterestedly resolved to discharge all its duties. I was again 
appointed Chairman of the Committee on the Governor's Speech, 
md reported an answer which was adopted in the senate by acclama- 
tion and which I insert here. 


ANSWER OF THE SENATE TO THE SPEECH oF His EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR. 


The Senate at the close of their last session indulged with your Excellency 
the pleasing expectation, that before this period the blessings of peace would 
have been restored to their country on terms consistent with its honor & 
Interest. They are however by subsequent events reluctantly compelled to bear 
stimony to the insincerity of the professions on which those reasonable ex- 
tions were founded. 

‘They have seen the enemy, while indulging in the vain hope that those pro- 
ssions would lead us into fancied but fatal impressions of security, applying 


1 The legislature met September 26, 1814.—W. C. F. 


53 


54 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
. his energies to’a vigorous prosecution of the war, and they have seen too with 
regret although not with dismay, that after having thus added duplicity to 
outrage, he has conducted the contest in a manner in the last degree disgrace- 
ful to a civilized nation & totally repugnant to the established rules of legiti- 
mate warfare. ; 

That he is actuated by the most malignant hostility—that during the present 
season he contemplated the most extensive injury to the future welfare of our 
beloved country, if not the destruction of its constitution & the consequent 
prostration of our excellent political institutions—that intoxicated by the re-— 
cent events in Europe which have given to the political complexion of the world — 
a new character, and seduced by his unlimited confidence in the invincibility 
of his Legions, he fondly hoped to carry victory into the very heart of the — 
country & by the wide spread desolation which should mark his course 10 
compel the American people if not to acknowledge the legitimacy of his 
authority at least to recognize & admit the supremacy of his power—must 
be obvious to all. 

The Senate therefore in common with your excellency and as they hope the 
whole American people “cannot but exult that thus far we have sustained the ~ 
shock with firmness & gathered laurels from the strife”—that although he 
has succeeded in penetrating to the Capital & in the conflagrations of the 
monuments of art with which by the enterprise & public spirit of the nation 
it had been adorned, his success has before this time been embittered with the © 
reflection that by their blaze he has kindled a flame of patriotism, which 
prevades every section of the union, by which he has been seriously scorched 
at Baltimore, & which threatens his compleat annihilation at every asSailable 
point of the union to which his ambition or his resentment may lead him. 

The Senate have witnessed with the same emotions, with the same enthusi- 
astic admiration evinced by your excellency the brilliant exploits achieved by — 
our army & navy during the present campaign—achievements, which in their ~ 
consequences have been so immediately & extensively beneficial to our frontier 
citizens, achievements which will not lose in the comparison with the most 
gallant efforts of the veterans of the old world—exploits that have pierced the © 
gloom which for a season obscured our political horizon & dispelled the fearful 
forebodings which past disasters had excited—exploits which have fully main- 
tained if not enhanced the proud & enviable fame of our gallant tars—which 
have covered the actors in those bright scenes with never fading laurels and 
which will until public gratitude ceases to be a public virtue ensure the highest 
testimonials which a free people can yield to freemen—unceasing reverence for 
the memory of those who have died on the field of honor & acts of unceasing — 
gratitude & esteem towards their noble survivors. 

The Senate have seen with great satisfaction the prompt & efficacious meas- 
ures adopted by your excellency to avert the dangers which impended [?] the 
State, and believing as they do that whatever excess of executive authority may 
have been indulged in, it has been not only exclusively intended for the promo- 
tion of the general good but was moreover rendered indispensible by the im- 
perious nature of existing circumstances—they cannot doubt but that the acts 
to which your excellency has referred will be such as to command their appro- 
bation & support. 

The Senate cannot forego the opportunity afforded them of uniting with your ~ 
excellency, in an expression of the high satisfaction with which they have © 
observed the increasing unanimity & noble ardour in our countries cause which ~ 
pervades almost the whole community. 

That on questions of local policy and the fitness of men for public stations © 
we should ever be exempt from differences of opinion was-not to be expected, 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 55 


divisions like those are inseparable from the blessings of our free constitution 
and although sometimes carryed to excess & made to produce a virulence & 
malignity which all good men must deplore, they are notwithstanding productive 
of much national good. But to have supposed that a people jealous of their 
rights & proud of their national character could, on the question of resisting the 
- aggressions of the open enemies of the land—aggressions which have polluted 
_ the soil & which threaten the demolition of those fair fabrics which have been 
_ consecrated to freedom by the Blood & sufferings of their fathers—that on a 
4g question of such vital moment, so well calculated to excite all the patriotism, 
| to arouse all the Spirit & to call into vigorous action all the latent energies of 
i the nation—they would long continue to waste their strength in criminal and 
unprofitable collisions would have been a base libel on their character. 

While therefore the Senate will at all times do all that in them lies to 
frustrate the efforts, to defeat the projects & to expose to public obloquy & 
reproach the conduct of all those who destitute of that noble love of country 
which should characterize Americans at this perilous crisis of our affairs, who 
_ preferring the Interests of party to those of their country, or actuated by 
i motives more deeply criminal, shall attempt to aid the foe by heaping ,un- 
_ founded calumnies on the constituted authorities of the Country, or shall 
_ seek to excite distraction & alarm in the councils of the nation or in any 
4 other way attempt to paralize the arm of government, yet freely sensible 
' that “every difference of opinion is not a difference in principle” they will 

on all occasions feel it to be their duty as it is their wish to afford to the 

meritorious soldier his due reward, without regard to sect or party. 
: The great Interest which the State of New York has in the prosecution & 

termination of the controversy in which our country is involved, the high 
_ destiny to which her local situation, the extent of her resources, the liberality 
' of her legislature & the ardor of her sons may lead her, have been duly 
; appreciated by your excellency. The Senate pledge their best exertion to 
_ realize those great & well founded expectations and relying on the Justice of» 
_ our cause for the approvement of a Just God they cannot but flatter them- 
_ selves, that in due season the American arms will be crowned: with compleat 
success & the mild reign of peace be restored to our now oppressed & bleeding 
country. 


Among the first proceedings was my introduction of the “Classi- 
"fication Bill”—prepared by myself after full consultation with our 
_ friends in both Houses, and let me add, in justice to one who, with 
_ a capacity scarcely inferior to any, failed so sadly in the estimation 

of his Countrymen, after availing myself also of the military expe- 
vience of Aaron Burr who was then at Albany. This Bill author- 
“ized the Governor to call into actual service Twelve Thousand of the : 
_ State Militia, to be taken from or recruited by Classes to be formed 
out of the free white male inhabitants of the State, over the age 
of 18 years, according to their respective estates, abilities and cir- 

‘cumstances. If any Class failed to produce an able bodied man, any 
_member of the class might furnish him, and thereby entitle himself 
_to the sum of Two Hundred Dollars, to be raised by assessment from 
the whole class, according to the appraisement or valuation ap- 
+From the autograph draft by Van Buren in the Van Buren Papers, Library of Con- 


gress. The speech is printed in the Journal of tho New York Senate under date of 
October 4, 1814, and was presented to the Governor October 5. 


56 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


pended to the Enrolment, and if a man was not thus produced | 
Bill contained other stringent provisions to enable the proper offi- 
cer to procure him, at the expense of the class in default, upon the 
same principle. The troops thus raised were to supply to that extent 
calls by the Federal Government upon the State Militia. The object. 
was not only to improve the character of the aid rendered to the 
service, under calls for Militia, by the superior efficiency of troops” 
thus raised over undisciplined recruits, but also to render the con-— 
tributions of the People to Militia Service more proportionate to 
their interests and Means that was the case under the then existing 
law. The Bill proceeded upon the principle that all expenses in- 
curred, or burdens imposed to preserve domestic order or to 
repel invasion should be borne as nearly as possible by each 
citizen proportionately to his interests, pecuniary as well as per- 
sonal, in the benefits to be thus secured: in other words to apply to 
the Militia Service the principle that has always prevailed in regard ~ 
to the support of the Army and Navy. The Bill excited the indigna-_ 
tion of the wealthy classes generally, and particularly of those © 
among them who were opposed to the War, and I was of course 
grossly abused by their mouth-pieces—so much so that in my own 
County the federal press advised its readers to withhold the courte- 
sies-of life from so bad a man, On one occasion I was accosted in — 
the street by my great professional antagonist, Elisha Williams, 
(then a member of the House of Assembly) with this character- 
istic remark,—“Van Buren, my federal friends are such fools — 
as to believe that you are in earnest with your Conscription Bill, 
and mean to carry it through, and I cannot convince them to the © 
contrary.” I told him that his friends were right, and that I was 
surprised to find that they understood me better than he, who ought ~ 
to know me best. He raised both hands in amazement and replied 
that he had always regarded me as a man of too much sense to get 
into such a scrape. 
We fought the Bill through against the violent opposition of the © 
Beaders liate aided by General Root, who denounced it with great bit- 
ternesst His opposition was, bomen much more than counterbal- 
anced by the manly and vigorous support of several.of the [ Federal- 
ist?] Senators. General Scott sent a copy of the Bill to Mr. Monroe, — 
then Secretary of War, and it was believed to have entered into the — 
composition of a somewhat similar plan that he recommended to 
Congress.? Governor Tompkins waited till the regular Winter ses- 
sion to obtain some amendments necessary to facilitate its execution, 


* 1The bill became a law October 24, 1814.—W. C. F. 

2Monroe’s measure may be peadied from his “‘ Explanatory observations ” and other © 
papers in the State Papers, Military Affairs, I, 515, and in Henry Adams, History of © 
the United States, VIII, 264.—W. C. F. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 57 


“upon points which had been overlooked in our anxiety to establish 
_ the principle; I applied at the opening of the session for a Commit- 
_ tee, and we were engaged upon the subject when the Express ar- 
_ rived bringing the news of peace. The original draft of the Bill, in 
my handwriting, is filed among the archives of the Senate, with the 

_ following endorsement :— 
| ‘The original classification Bill—to be preserved as a Memento of the Patriot- 

_ ism, Intelligence and Firmness of the Legislature of 1814-15. 

M. V. BUREN. 

Filed, Feb’ 21%* 1815 
The additional results of the active patriotism of the Republican 
members were Bills to raise the pay of the Militia while in the 
service of the United States—to Encourage Privateering—to raise a 
Corps of Sea fencibles——and to raise two Regiments of colored men. 
_ These laws were highly approved at Washington, and President 
_ Madison, to testify the sense of the national administration of fhe 
high stand taken by New York, offered to Governor Tompkins the 
office of Secretary of State, made vacant by [the transfer of James 
Monroe to the War Department.] 
Although surrounded by difficulties which were calculated to dis- 
turb the strongest nerves and constantly obliged to jeopard his 
_ private fortune by personal responsibilities, indispensably assumed 
_ for the public service, and thereby laying the foundation for the de- 
struction of his future peace of mind, he [Tompkins] declined an 
appointment which was then regarded as the stepping stone to the 
_ Presidency. The reason assigned for his declension was his convic- 
tion that he could, during the continuance of the War, be of more 
service to the country in the position of Governor of New York, than 
' in that of Secretary of State. There is no doubt that this was the 
_ only consideration that determined his conduct, and it presented an 
' instance of pure and self sacrificing patriotism, rarely equalled and 
_ certainly not surpassed by any'single act during the War. 
Chancellor Kent objected, in the Council of Revision, to the 
Classification Bill, the Bill to raise a °corps of sea-fencibles, and the 
- Bill to encourage Privateering, and delivered an Opinion, which 
- savoured more than was deemed suitable to the occasion of an ap- 
__ peal to popular prejudices. My friend Col. Samuel Young, who had 
commenced his legislative career at the previous session. with much 
_ promise, and was now Speaker of the Assembly, answered and suc- 
cessfully refuted the Chancellor’s objections to the Classification 
_ Act in one or two able numbers published in the Albany Argus, over 
_ the signature of “Juris consultus.” The Chancellor replied over 


1 Offer made September 29, 1814—W. C. F. ° MS. I, p. 75. 


58 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


that of “Amicus Curiae.” Col. Young, having confined himself 


principally to the Classification Bill, I took up the subject of the — 


Chancellor’s objections to the Bill to encourage Privateering, over 
the signature of “Amicus Juris consultus.” Finding that he had in- 
volved himself in a controversy uncongenial with his amiable and 
generally pacific disposition, the Chancellor retired with a Card, 
indicative of a sense of discomfiture. This was replied to by Amécus 
Juris Consultus, in the same form, and the discussion was closed. 

The Chancellor’s second and last number in reply to Juris Con-- 
sultus appeared on the 28th of November 1814, and concluded with 
the following sentence;—“ The public attention appears now to 
be properly awakened to the all important merits of our Conscription 
Policy. I am a great friend to the freedom and utility of public 
discussion, and I have no doubt it will be found now, as it has in 
all former times, that a free press is the great guardian of civil 
Liberty. So fully do I believe in its efficiency that if the ‘Consti- 
tuition was subverted and tyranny seated on the throne, 
surrounded by her sycophants, her parasites, her informers, her 
guards, her assassins and her executioners, a free press would restore 
the one and overturn the other.” 

The first number of Amicus Juris Consultus appeared on the next 
day, and the Chancellors card (which will be found with it), on 
the second day following. 

I have deemed the portion of these papers in my possession worthy 
of preservation, and they accompany this Memoir, not on account 
of their merits, but from higher considerations. The spirit with 
which the publick mind influenced and supported the legislation 
referred to, when regarded in connection with the actual position 
and pretensions of the enemy, afford, I cannot but think, a most 
gratifying exhibition of the character of our People under circum- 
stances more trying than any to which our Country has been ex- 
posed since the War of the Revolution. The sacking of Washing- 
ton—that wanton act of barbarity—and the temporary dispersion 
of the Government, have already been spoken of. These had been 
followed up by a formal announcement to the President by the 
British naval Commander on our coast upon pretences of the most 
unfounded character, that he intended to employ the forces under 
his direction “in destroying and laying waste such towns and dis- 
tricts on our coast as might be found assailable.’” By despatches 
received from our Ministers at Ghent (during the brief Extra-ses- 
sion at which these laws were passed, and this objection interposed ) 
it appears that the demands of the Enemy were as follows: 


+In the Van Buren Papers under dates of Noy. and Dec, 1814. 
? Cochrane to Monroe, August 18, 1814—before the sacking of Washington. —W. C. F. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 59 


1st. That their Indian Allies should be embraced in the treaty, and 
a boundary line between them and us permanently settled, beyond 
_ .which we should not be permitted to purchase any land, or exercise 
_ jurisdiction; and a line was proposed by which the United States 
would have deprived themselves of the jurisdiction of at least one 
third of their original territory, including large portions of the 
population of Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois Territories, and which 
would also have annulled several Treaties we had made with the 
Indian Tribes by which the Indian Title to several millions of acres 
of land had been extinguished; and this article was declared to be a 
sine qua non to a Treaty of Peace: 

2d. That the entire military command of the Lakes, from Ontario 
to Erie, inclusive, in the form of an exclusive right to maintain naval 
armaments upon them and military Posts on their shores should ba 
secured to Great Britain; the British Commissioners declining to 
answer, for the present, the question whether this was also to be 
regarded as a sine qua non for the reason that they had already 
proposed one article of that character: 

3d. That there should be a cession of as much of the territory of 
Maine as might be necessary for a direct communication between 
Halifax and Quebeck: 

4th. That our Fishermen should no longer have the right to dry 
their fish on the coast of New Foundland; and 

5th. That a new Boundary should be run between them and us 
from Lake Superior to the Mississippi.* 


EDS Th TEN eee a ee ee 


“9 

: The indignation excited by these atrocious acts and insolent de- 
: mands was intense, and soon satisfied the enemy that their crimes 
_ were also great blunders. It was at this crisis that Rufus King 
_ and other distinguished federalists withdrew their opposition 
to the War, and cast the weight of their imfluence on the side of 
_ their own Country,? and in our Legislature—hitherto, and still toa 
; ereat extent, the hot-bed of faction—there were not wanting symp- 
toms of relaxation. 


Col. Benton, in his recent able work, places the subject of the 
conclusion of peace, without any stipulation of the subject of Im- 
pressment, upon its true grounds. That question was better dis- 
posed of than it would have been by any stipulation. We would 
now regard it as inconsistent with our national honor to ask or 
receive any promise on that point as the price of peace. The world 
Inows that any action based upon such pretension im respect to our 
sailors would be tantamount to a declaration of War. During her 
recent war with Russia Great Britain has wisely taken a step in 

1See Henry Adams, History of the United States, ix, 17——W. C. F. 


2See a memorandum, dated October, 1814, on the policy of the Federalists in the Life 
and Correspondence of Rufus King, V, 422.—W. C. F. 


ewe are 


we 
¢ 
+ 


4 


60 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 


advance upon the general subject of maritime rights, and there ~ 
is no reason to apprehend that any similar questions will ever again — 
be the cause of War between two Nations which have such strong , 
inducements to be at peace. 

Our exemption from further molestation in these respects is one p 
of the results of the War of 1812 and one of the many reasons why 
that event should be regarded as having been of more advantage 
to us than any that has occurred since the adoption of the Federal 
Constitution. 

I cannot allow myself to pass from the subject oe the demands of 
the British Government without congratulating my countrymen on 
the dignity and immense power that the United States have ac- 
quired since that day. What nation in the world would now deem 
it either wise or safe to propose to us such terms as indispensable 
conditions to a treaty of peace? Not one, 

The laws to which the Chancellor objected were passed in the 
Assembly by a vote of nearly three fourths, and, in the Senate, 
of about two thirds. In addition to this a Resolution passed the 
Assembly unanimously and was concurred in by the Senate, with 
equal cordiality, declaring “that the House of Assembly of the 
State of New York view with mingled emotions of surprise and 
indignation the extravagant and disgraceful terms proposed by 
the British Commissioners at Ghent; that however ardently they 
might desire the restoration of peace to their country, they would 
never consent to receive it at the sacrifice of National honor and 
dignity.” But it was seen with pain and regret that a very slight 
portion, if any, of these feelings had reached the breast of the 
Chancellor, or it would perhaps be nearer the truth to say, of those 
by whose eauneele his political course was greatly influenced. Ob- 

jections founded on exclusively constitutional grounds, expressed 
- with moderation, and accompanied by circumstances indicative of 
regret that official duty prevented a different conclusion, would 
doubtless have been received in a liberal and indulgent spirit, but 
the construction and temper of his Opinion closed the door against 
any such inferences, and the fact, charged at the time and never 
denied that he furnished a copy oS the newspapers, shewed that it 
originated in a partizan spirit. It was under these circumstances 
that Col. Young and myself, both young men, then only in the second. 
year of our public service, stepped forward and arraigned the con- 
duct of the Chancellor at the bar of publick opinion in terms that 
we would, in a different state of things, have never thought of em- 
ploying. If anything were wanting besides what appears in the 


1This refers to the declaration adopted in April, 1856, by a congress of several martl- 
time Powers assembled at Paris. The position of the United States is given in Wharton, 
Digest of the International Law of the United States, X, 342.—W. C. F. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 61 


articles written by me to shew the absence of any personal ill will on 
my part, it will be abundantly furnished by the following circum- 
stances. The Chancellor, shortly afterwards, determined to abstain 
from all participation in party politics, and wrote a letter to that 
effect to his friend Josiah Ogden Hoffman, which was published. — 
As soon as it appeared I wrote an article for the Argus, the original 
draft of which is still among my papers, and the portion of which 
relating to this subject was as follows :— 

Mr. Burx.—I hope you will not fail to lay before your readers the 
very interesting letter from Chancellor Kent to Mr. Hoffman. It 
cannot fail to be gratifying to every real friend to the Judiciary. 
They have witnessed with regret the unceasing attempts which have 
been for some time making by his Judicial friends to draw him, 
with them, into all the petty intrigues of a Cabal which keeps the 
state in commotion, in the hope that if they could not derive a full 
excuse from his participation, they would at least divide the odium 
by his community. The determination to withdraw himself from 
the party dissensions of the day, and to devote his time and atten- 
tion to the studies and duties of his office, expressed in this letter, is 
as it should be. His distinguished merits have been a subject of 
general admiration, and not unfrequently, it is feared, of sinister 
commendation. It is however but bare justice to him to say that 
among the list of worthies who have at periods filled our highest 
Judicial Offices, many of whom have descended to the tomb, accom- 
panied by the benedictions of their fellow citizens, there has not been 
one who for spotless purity and exemplary industry in the discharge 
of his Judicial duties, has excelled the present Chancellor. There is 
no Equity Tribunal in this Country organized like our Court of 
Chancery; not one in which a single Judge ° possesses such extensive 
powers, and it is a source of just pride and satisfaction, that without 
subjecting ourselves to the charge of arrogance we can safely chal- 
lenge a comparison in point of learning, industry and all the quali- 
ties requisite for a Judge, between the present incumbent and the 


i _ brightest luminaries of the law throughout the Union. As such his 


_ character is the property of the State, and should be guarded against 
_ encroachments with the utmost jealousy, and as such too it is doubly 
_ important-that by his total exclusion from the angry conflicts of 
party (with which this State is yet, for a season, doomed to be 
_aiilicted,) all obstacles to yielding him our united and cheerful ap- 


_ plause should be removed; so that when Virginians, without regard 
_ to party, expatiate on the distinguished talents of their MarsHatu,— 


_ when our Eastern brethren dwell with enthusiasm on the memory 
_ of their justly celebrated Parsons and boast of the erudition cf 


——— 


1 Not found among the Van Buren Papers. ° MS. I, p. 80. 


62 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. - 


their Story, we too may be able to point to a Judicial character, on 
which New York reposes her claims to a fair equality with the 
proudest of her sister States. . 

A steady adherence to the resolution contained in this letter is all 
- that is necessary to secure this great End—every thing but that is + 
already done. The Republicans of the State do not desire, nor would | 
they approve the active co-operation of the Judges of our superior — 
Courts in those party strifes which our free political institutions — 
must and will produce. The utmost: of their wish is to see them 
“devote their time and attention to the studies and duties of their — 
office.” Wet Chancellor Kent therefore persevere in his praise- 
worthy determination, and at the appointed day when, by the im- 
perious provision of our Constitution, the high powers which have 
been delegated to him must be surrendered, he will find that that — 
Party which can neither be intimidated by oppression, seduced by 
corruption, nor circumvented by artifice, is not wanting in liberality | 
even to political opponents,—but there is no class of men who take 
more pleasure than they in bestowing the unbought and freewill offer- 
ing of their approbation and support upon official merit. 

While passing down the river on the morning after the appear- 
ance of my Card I met on the steamboat with a very clever lady and 
devoted friend of the Chancellor, who charged me with cruelty in 
exciting him to the extent she had herself witnessed that morning; 
and, which made it worse, she said, he was: very far from being my 
enemy. I replied that she could not herself have seen the Card 
she referred to, or a person of her good sense would have perceived 
that the writer, whoever he might be, was none other than a true 
friend of the Chancellor. This profession in respect to my own 
feelings was entirely sincere. From my first acquaintance with him, 
until his death, I entertained for him sentiments of true esteem and — 
great respect. If it is not a compliment too broad to be paid to any 
man, considering the frailty of human nature, and the bad influences 
to which the best are exposed at times, through their passions, I 
would say that I do not believe that he ever, in his long and honor- 
able career, did an act, whatever may have been its error, that he at 
least did not conscientiously think to be right. I was first pre- 
sented to him on my return home from the city of New York, where 
I had been studying law, at the Columbian Circuit which he was 
holding. He was sitting in the shade after the labours of the sum- 
mer’s day surrounded-by a group composed of William P. Van 
Ness, Elisha Williams, Thomas P. Grosvenor, and others, who were 
greatly excited in consequence of some political occurrence, and 
were giving vent to their feelings in the severest terms. ‘They retired 
one after another, and when he and myself were about the only 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 63 


_ persons present he rose from his seat and exclaimed, “ Oh! these poli- 
ticians! What trouble and vexation do they not cause! for myself 
_ I have been content to eat my cake in peace,” and, tapping me on 
_ the shoulder, added—“ don’t you think that is the wisest course, 
_ young man!” Almost, if not quite the last time I had the pleasure 
_ of meeting him, was oe forty years afterwards in New York 
and in fee street, on my way home from Washington, after the ex- 
_ piration of my Pee ieatial Term. He took both my hands, ex- 
_ pressed his great satisfaction in having met me, and insisted on my 
~ accompanying him to his house which was near at hand: and on 
my consenting to do so, he said at once, “I have to ask your pardon, 

Sir, for the part T have taken in assisting to turn you out, and put- 
f ting a man in your place, who is wholly “unfit for it. I pledge you 
-my honor, Sir, that I was then wholly ignorant of the fact, but now 
_ I Imow all about it! You made a very good President; I did not 
approve of all you did—<but you did nothing of which either of us 
has reason to be ashamed; and we ought not to have turned you out, 
_ without placing a more competent man in your place, and in that 
matter I was sadly deceived, and I have, ever since I understood 
- it, desired an opportunity to say to you what I now say!” I found 
_ it impossible to stop him until we had reached his house, when he 
_ introduced me to Mrs. Kent, and repeated to her what he had said 
to me. I spent an agreeable hour with him and parted with a 
_ promise on his part that he would pay me a visit in the country. 

In my experience of men I have never known three men who 
received so nearly the same stamp from the hand of Nature as James 
_ Madison, Bushrod Washington and James Kent. In the simplicity, 
sincerity and inoffensiveness of their dispositions they were identi- 
_ eal; each owned a delightful cheerfulness of temperament and an 
unvarying desire to develop that heaven-born quality in others. 
With a buoyancy of spirits and manners sometimes bordering on 
levity, they never for a moment hazarded the respect of their friends 
_ or of those about them. Mr. Madison’s life having been devoted to - 
_ politicks he was more reserved in regard to public affairs, but upon 
all other subjects they spoke their sentiments with the simplicity 
and directness of children. Kent possessed more genius and learning 
_ than his brother Judge, but Washington’s mind was of a highly 
4 respectable order. Mr. Emmet, in speaking to me of Kent, said that 
he was a learned and able J Bee hut a poor Jury-man. The justice 
‘of this distinetion frequently occurred to me. Elevated to the Bench 
at an early age, and ardently devoted to domestic life, he had 
iixed but little with the world and was proportionally disqualified 
to sift and weigh testimony. This was strikingly exhibited at the 
ommencement of his official duties as Chancellor. Being obliged in 


64 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, = 


most cases to decide both law and fact, and too liable to be Jed int 
extremes, by his detestation of fraud, several of his first decrees’ 
failed to stand the test of review in the Court for the Correction of 
Errors. At the first or second Term of that Court, not fewer than 
six of his Decrees (speaking from memory) were reversed with the 
concurrence of his former brethren of the Supreme Court. Having 
occasion to call at his office the next morning on professional busi- 
ness, he displayed, in my presence, what, in almost any other man, 
would have been regarded as undignified violence of temper and | 
manner, but would not, to one who knew him well, bear any such 
construction. The reversals of the preceding day having been re- ; 
ferred to, he broke out into a mock tirade against the Judges, to the 
following effect ;—‘‘ They are unfit for their places, Mr. Van Buren; 
You know that they are! Spencer and Van Ness are able enough, | 
but instead of studying their cases they devote their time to poli- + 
ticks! You know that, as well as I do! As to Judge Yarus”— ~ 
raising his hands—“T need say nothing! You should roll him back 
to Schenectady!” (an allusion to Judge Y’s personal appearance, — 
borrowed from Mr. Clinton,)—“And as to my cousin Puatr! He is 
only fit to be Head Deacon to a Presbyterian Church, and for nothing 
else! ”? . 
The memories of the older members of the Bar must abound in ~ 
the recollection of similar ebullitions. On one occasion when I was 
present at his Chambers, a young attorney was applying for admis- 
sion as Solicitor in Chancery. Finding (as was very evident) that 
he could not bring his case within the rules, he referred to the ad- 
mission under similar circumstances of an attorney from a neigh- 
bouring city whose rough manners were notorious. Before he had 
finished his statement His Honor interrupted him in the following 
stran—‘T deny it! Sir! It is not true! I did not admit him! 
He sroxe in! How would you keep such a fellow out?—But you 
are a gentleman, and must not try to imitate such a bad example. 
Wait till° the proper time and I will admit you with pleasure.” At 
an earlier period he had been holding a tedious Circuit in Columbia, 


and, on the last day, tried an action for an assault and battery on 
a w 

+“ To tell you the truth, I am discouraged and heartbroken. The judges have pre- 
vailed on the Court of Errors to reverse all my best decisions. They haye reversed Frost 
v. Beekman, the Methodist Episcopal Church v, Jacques, Anderson v. Boyd, and others. 
After such devastation, what courage ought I to have to study and write elaborate opin- 
ions? There are but two sides to every case, and I am so unfortunate as always to take 
the wrong side. I never felt more disgusted with the judges in all my life, and I ex- 
pressed myself to Judge Platt in a way to mortify and offend him. _ According to my 
present feelings and sentiments, I will never consent to publish another opinion, and I 
have taken and removed out of sight and out of my office into another room my three 
volumes of Chancery Reports.. They were too fearful when standing before my eyes.” 
James Kent to William Johnson, April, 1820. Kent, Memoirs and Letters of James Kent, 
p. 186.—W. C. F. 

° MS. I, p. 85. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 65 


negro. It appeared that the negro’s conduct had been improper, and 
the Jury gave him only six cents damages. He had brought an- 
other suit. against another defendant for the same assault that was 
also on the Calendar, but had been passed. The Plaintiff wished to 
have it tried at the close of the circuit and the Judge refused, saying 
_ that he had had his chance, but on the representation of Plaintiff's 
counsel that his client was poor and would be liable to heavy costs, the 
Judge consented, with an admonition to the Counsel that if he did 
not recover more than six cents in the other cause he would not give 
him a certificate to entitle him to costs. The Clerk commenced call- 
ing the Jury, when the Judge looked at his watch and exclaimed, 
_ “Stop, Clerk! Ill be hanged if I will try the other Cause! The 
_ Negro was saucy and deserved to be whipped! Crier! adjourn the 
Court!” 
127483°—vor 2—20—_5 


_ CHAPTER VY. 


The return of peace naturally revived rival aspirations for political 
distinction which had been in some degree suspended, on the Re- 
publican side, by the engrossing cares and responsibilities of the War. 

The question in regard to Gen. [Obadiah] German’s successor in— 
the Senate of the United States took the lead in our State affairs. — 
The personal and political relations between Judge Spencer and 
myself had been harmonious during the War; more so than ever 
before, and, I regret to be obliged to add, thane they ever were — 
afterwards. He was exceedingly anxious fae the appointment of 
his old friend Gen. Armstrong, and pressed me with his accus- 
tomed earnestness to unite in his support. I could not consent to_ 
this proposal, but offered at once and with entire sincerity to sup- — 
port the Judge himself. He expressed his gratification at this offer, 
but declined becoming a Candidate, on the ground that his pur-— 
suits had not been of a character to qualify him for the place; and ~ 
he did not discontinue his efforts to induce me to go for his friend. At- 
our last interview that took place at his own house and by appoint- — 
ment, he submitted to me a great number of letters received by him 
from different parts of the state in favor of Gen. Armstrong to re- 
fute the opinion I had expressed that his efforts in favor of the — 
General might prove a failure. I had, before this interview, come — 
to the conclusion to support Nathan Sanford, of which fact I then — 
apprised the Judge. He was somewhat excited, but received the 
communication in a much better spirit than was usual with him 
when his wishes were opposed, repeated his entire confidence in — 
Gen. Armstrong’s success, and expressed a hope that our difference — 
would be an amiable one. Understanding his disposition and satis- — 
fied that when he found that he might fail in hig design he would ~ 
not be able to persevere in the liberal feelings he then professed, I — 
deemed it an act of prudence to look out in season for the means ~ 
of self defense. The Council of Appointment was in those days — 
the only secure citadel of political strength to its possessors, and to 
that my attention was directed. In regular course Mr. Sanford — 
would be selected for that Council from the Southern District; — 
Ruggles Hubbard was the only Republican Senator from the Eastern 
District, and must therefore be chosen; with them and my friend 
Lucas Elmendorff from my own—the Middle District—we would 
have three out of the four members, and might feel ourselves safe 
from persecution for the act of rebellion we meditated against 

66 . 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 67 


Judge Spencer’s long acknowledged supremacy. These we had 
the power, to elect, but at the Meeting of the Legislature Mr. San- 
ford declined a place in the Council, and recommended the selec- 
tion of Judge [Jonathan] Dayton. By this act Col. Young, one of 
the most efficient of his supporters; was sacrificed to Spencer’s re- 
-sentment, as would have been the case with myself if I had had no 
other reliance than on Mr. Sanford’s support. Dayton, Elmendorff, 
Hubbard and Col. [Farrand] Stranahan (a friend of the Judge) 
were chosen for the Council." Judge Spencer continued for a sea- 
_ son to support General Armstrong with great spirit but was finally 
compelled to abandon his case as hopeless. He then brought for- 
ward the name of his friend Elisha Jenkins but with no better 
success. Finally his own name was introduced into the Canvass, 
and the matter treated by his friends as if the only question was 
whether he would consent to take the office. When he was proposed 
in the Caucus, gentlemen who had dined in company with him but 
a few hours before made conflicting statements in regard to his 
' willingness to take the place. This produced a motion on the part 
of one of his friends that a committee should wait on him to ascer- 
tain whether he would serve if appointed. I opposed this motion, 
and cautioned his friends to reflect that the appointment of such a 
Committee would be tantamount to a declaration that a majority 
_ were in his favor—which I was very confident was not the case—and 
' that if they should prove to be mistaken on this point they would 
practice a cruel deception upon their friend if they should obtain 
his consent. The motion was however persisted in and lost. I then 
moved for a recess of one hour, to give the Judge’s friends an op- 
portunity to consult him if they were so disposed. They availed 
themselves of it, reported his declension to stand as a Candidate,* 
and Mr. Sanford was nominated without an organized opposition. 
Whilst we were proceeding in the election on the following day, 
Judge Woodworth came into the Senate Chamber, and directing 
 Sanford’s attention to him I said “There is the man who will be 
used by Judge Spencer to punish me for what we are now doing.” 
When the Senate adjourned Woodworth stepped towards Sanford 
and myself, and invited us to drive to our lodgings in his sleigh, 
“and on our way proposed a visit at his house. While there he was 
vociferous in his exultation at the triumph we had obtained over an 
“influence” (referring to Spencer) which had, he said, ruled the 
State too long. After we parted from him, Mr. Sanford asked me 
whether I did not regret the injustice I had done a friend. I an- 


1The election occurred February 1, 1815.—W. C. F. 
-2Hammond says (I, 393, note) that it was Van Buren who stated that he did not 
believe Judge Spencer would consent to be a candidate.—W. C. F. 
_*“ Because he would not put himself in competition with so young a man as San- 
ford.”— (Hammond, I, 393 note).—W. C. F, 


68 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. = 


swered in the negative, and told him that Woodworth knew noth ¥ 
of the matter yet, but that the Judge would send for him in the 
evening and obtain his consent to be a candidate against me for the 
office of Attorney General. The desire of the party that I should” 
be appointed to that office was so general that until that time no” 
other name had been spoken of. The movement, as I told Sanford, 
would be founded on the assumption that Stranahan would certainly 
go with the Judge; that Hubbard who was a near relative of Wood- 
worth, and had been to some extent brought up by him, could be 
easily induced to vote for him, and that ‘Speaeem 's influence with 
the Governor, aided by the fact that considerable uneasiness had 
arisen between the latter and myself in respect to local appointments” 
in my county, would be sufficient to induce him to give the casting 
vote against me. 

A fon days afterwards the Governor gave his first State dinner 
at which were present most of the parties to the political broil then 
in embryo, except myself—confined to my own quarters by a severe 
cold. In the evening Sanford and Ruggles [Hubbard] called at my 
room, in much excitement, and iacoerey me that the Governor had 
een them before they left him, Woodworth’s application for the 
office of Attorney General, and had also told them that when the 
application was presented Woodworth had given him to understand 
that his friends contemplated the passage of a law for the appoint- 
ment of two additional Judges of the Supreme Court, and that if 
my friends would sustain that measure and allow the appointment of 
Judges and Attorney General to proceed pari passu he would accept 
the office of Judge and withdraw his application for the Attorney 
Generalship. Mr. Hubbard knowing that he was to be in the Coun- 
cil and apprehending ° that he might be embarrassed by an applica-_ 
tion from Woodworth had written me a letter expressing his prefer- 
ence for me for the office in question and pledging himself to vote 
in my favor. This he thought would furnish him with a satisfactory 
answer to all importunities. I took this letter from my desk, and 
after reminding Mr. Sanford of my anticipations, explained its con- 
tents and pointing out to Mr, Hubbard the impropriety of writing: 
it offered to return it to him with a declaration that I should insist 
on his voting for Woodworth, and on his refusing to receive it, yy 
threw it into the fire. I then told him that I was opposed to the 
proposed increase on the Bench upon principle, and that if I were 
not I could never consent to support the measure after so profligate 
a proposition had been attached to it, and requested Mr, Hubbard 
to inform Woodworth that if a movement in that direction was made 
in the Senate by any of his friends, I would repeat from my place 
ee pepe BE RE ee Eee 


° MS, I, p. 90. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 69 


his declarations to the Governor, and denounce the proposed arrange- 
ment as corrupt. Ruggles Hubbard was a noble hearted, enthusiastic 
and confiding young man and through these qualities he was hable 
sometimes to be misled by designing persons, whilst his motives were 
_ always honest and generous. He was a zealous friend of mine, and 
as I have already said he was nearly connected with Woodworth 
(his sister having been Woodworth’s first wife, I believe) and I was 
unwilling that he should gratify his feelings at the expense of a 
rupture with his relative. I therefore in the presence of Mr. San- 
_ ford, repeated my desire that he would take the course I had at first 
recommended. He answered that he was desirous to preserve the 
_ friendship of Mr. Woodworth, and could not at the moment say how 
_ far he might be induced to go to serve him, but that nothing on earth 
could induce him to give a vote that would defeat my appointment. 
After urging him farther on the point we parted. A few days later 
; he called at my room in high spirits and told me that he had un- 
- bosomed himself to Governor Tompkins who had readily relieved 
him by the assurance that if there was a tie in the Council he would 
be glad of the opportunity to give the casting vote in my favor be- 
cause he thought me entitled to the place and because he knew that 
the People desired that I should have it. 
The practice of the Council had always been to meet at the Gov- 
ernor’s Room, and to commence and finish their proceedings there. 
Tt was now proposed and agreed to that they should first meet at 
‘their own rooms in the city, and agree upon what they were to do, 
and then go to the Governor’s office to record their decisions. The 
design doubtless was to lessen the influence of the Governor, but 
_ this was not suspected by Elmendorff and Dayton. A more active 
- or a more indomitable spirit than Judge Spencer’s never existed. 
_ Deeply offended by the choice of Senator, and seeing in the result, 
as he thought, a design on the part of the young men of the party 
to cast off his control over its action, he had determined not to con- 
tent himself with my defeat, but had carefully prepared a blow with 
which to assail us in an unexpected quarter. 
| I was engaged to dine with my old friend Matthew Gregory on 
the day appointed for the first meeting of the Council, and on my 
_ way to his house I met Hubbard. Seeing in his speaking counten- 
ance indications of distress I enquired after the cause, and, in reply, 
he gave me a history of the proceedings of the Council at their in- 
_ formal meeting, which had just broken up. On my nomination there 
had been a tie; Elmendorff and Dayton voting for me, and Stran- 
 ahan and himself for Woodworth, but Col. Young’s nomination, as 
' Secretary of State, in respect to which no question had been raised 


Spee OY ee ee Ve Sa 


1A different character is given by Hammond, i, 299, note.—W. C. F. 


Qe! |S 
70 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, = 


or was expected, had been defeated, and Elisha Jenkins had been 
agreed upon. I begged him to go at once to Mr. Sanford and to 
ask his interference. He answered that it would be useless, as Mr. 
Dayton’s pride had been assailed and his mind prejudiced by insinua- 
tions that he was Sanford’s representative in the Council, and any — 
appeal from that quarter would therefore do more harm than good; 
and any attempt to arrest the appointment in the afternoon, at the 
regular meeting of the Council, he thought would be unavailing— 
so that all he had to do was to apprise Col. Young of what had been q 
done. Judge Spencer had furthermore quietly operated upon Mr. 
Elmendorff, who had acted with him so long that he could not refuse — 
to gratify him in regard to the appointment of his friend Jenkins, 
as a sort of peace offering for the Judge’s disappointment on the 
question of Senator. Wounded by this result I was sufficiently rest- | 
less at the dinner table to attract the attention of the Company, who — 
very naturally attributed my anxiety to my own affair. While seek- — 
ing relief, as men often do under such circumstances, by looking out — 
of the window, I saw Hubbard on his way to the Council. The 
sight of him suggested an idea which I put.into instant execution. — 
Calling Judge Atwater (a brother Senator) from the table to the — 
hall, I informed him of the condition of things, and begged him to 
follow Hubbard, who was still in view, and to ask him from me to 
nominate Peter B. Porter for Secretary of State, the moment the — 
Council was organized, and to persist in his nomination until he 
had a vote upon it. Atwater returned and reported that he had over- — 
taken Hubbard at the Governor’s door, and that he had promised to — 
do what was requested. I then asked the Judge to go to the Eagle 
Tavern, where Porter had only arrived the evening before, to inform — 
him of what had been done, to ask him to accept, and, if he did not, — 
as we supposed, desire the place, to hold the office until we could re- ~ 
cover our ground, and obtain the appointment of Young. He did ~ 
so, and Porter readily consented. The Council remained in session — 
until midnight, occupied almost every moment of the time with so- 
licitations and remonstrances, addressed to Hubbard by his col- 
leagues, to induce him to withdraw his nomination. When they 
found every attempt of that character unavailing Porter was ap- 
pointed by a unanimous vote. The General had fought gallantly — 
in the War, and on his arrival at Albany became the lion of the day. 
Jenkins, on the other hand, had held a lucrative appointment in the © 
Commissary Department, ae personal exposure to danger. 

I was right in supposing that the Council would not venture 
to reject Porter, under such circumstances, in fayor of Jenkins. 
The appointment was, of course, a surprise upon every body, and 


1In place of Jacob Rutsen Van Rensselaer, removed.—W. C. F. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 71 


a source of deep mortification to Judge Spencer. The appointment 
of Jenkins under existing circumstances was an affair he had an- 
- ticipated with delight and exultation, the expression of which would 
have speedily followed the action of the Council. Governor Tomp- 
Kins was in favor of Young, and told me afterwards that he had 
heard from one of the members what had been agreed upon at the 
_ informal meeting and was much mortified by it. He said that at 
that moment he was called out to receive Gen. Strong, of Vermont, 
who had served with distinction in the War, and that he detained 
his visitor longer than he would otherwise have done to gain time 
for reflection, in the hope of being able to devise some scheme to 
save Young; but he returned to the Council without a plan, when 
_ Hubbard’s motion presented him with a way to escape. Porter 
_ held the office for a year, and resigned it whilst I was detained at 
Hudson by sickness in my family, when Young was again dis- 
appointed thro’ influences of which I need not speak. 

The Governor deferred giving his casting vote upon the appoint- 
ment of Attorney General until another day, when he promised to 
give it at his office in the Capitol. When that day arrived, Judge 
Woodworth and myself were invited to dine with his brother-in- 
jaw, the Patroon; and Woodworth came late to dinner, having waited 
to ascertain the result of the Governor’s action. When he came in 
Gen. Van Rensselaer, who knew in advance, asked him provokingly 
who was Attorney General; a question that he was obviously not 
happy to answer. 

Peter B. Porter was a man of prepossessing personal appearance, 
good address and fine mind. He was fortunate and, in no inconsider- 
able degree, successful as well in the field as in our national Coun- 
ceils during the War, and yet he was at no time popular with the 
masses. The reason was a general conviction that the acquisition 
of wealth was his master passion, to which every other was made 


1Mr. Van Vechten was, of course, removed from the office of attorney general, and 
Mr. Van Buren was appointed his successor. This appointment was made by the casting 
yote of the governor. Mr. Elmendorff and Mr. Dayton voted for Mr. Van Buren, and 
Messrs. Stranahan and Hubbard for Mr. John Woodworth. The circumstance is too 
trifling to deserve notice, except as an evidence of a jealous feeling which then began to 
exist between Judge Spencer and Mr. Van Buren. I do not impute the vote of Hubbard 
to the influence of Judge Spencer. Mr. H. was from Troy, and Judge Woodworth had 
many and powerful friends in that place, and in Mr. Hubbard's district. This accounts 

well enough for the vote of Mr. Hubbard. But Stranahan had no personal partialities 
. nor any influential friends, in his district, in favor of Woodworth; on the contrary, they 
4 were for Van Buren. The truth is, Stranahan, at that period of his political life, was 

much if not entirely, devoted to the views of Judge Spencer. I apprehend that Judge 
Spencer perceived that Mr. Van Buren was acquiringa greater influence in the State 
_ than the judge desired he should possess, and, therefore, persuaded Mr. Stranahan to 
endeavor to defeat his appointment. From this period, down to 1817, when Mr. Clinton 
"was nominated for governor, Mr. Van Buren and Judge Spencer, though both of them 
acting with the Republican party, and in good faith too, were very much inclined to 
‘thwart the individual views of each other.” Hammond, History of Political Parties in 
' the State of New York, I, 392.—W. C.F. 


72 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


subsidiary. A partial illustration of this trait was exhibited in a — 
transaction with which I was connected. Whilst we were holding ~ 
the respective offices of Secretary of State and Attorney General, he 
proposed to me to unite with him in the purchase of an outstanding — 
Class Right with a view to its location on Goat Island, at the head — 
of the Niagara falls. I assented, and advanced him half the con- 
sideration money. The location was made, and no opposition or 
objection was raised to the completion of the title. But when it was 
found necessary to have the proceedings confirmed by the Commis- — 
sioners of the Land Office, of which Board we were members, the 
objection to our being parties to any speculation that required such 
a step presented i poate tomy mind. I stated it to him and he laughed 
at ° what he called my fastidiousness, at the same time saying that 
if I persisted in it he would be too happy to return me my money— 
about a thousand dollars—and to take the whole purchase himself. 
I did persist, and he made a very considerable fortune out of the 
transaction. 

Judge Spencer’s feelings were somewhat soothed by his success in 
obtaining the removal of DeWitt Clinton from the office of Mayor of 
New York. Mr. Hammond’ is right in assuming that I took no part 
in that,matter. My friend Mr. Elmendorff could not have been in- 
duced to vote for it by any other consideration than his desire to save 
the Governor from the necessity of giving the casting vote—other- 
wise unavoidable, as Hubbard could not be brought to vote for the 
removal. 

Mr. Clinton retired to his place at Flushing, to which he had often 
been sentenced in advance by Judge Spencer during their quarrel. 
Here he rusticated for two years, when strange to say he was recalled 
to public life mainly thro’ the instrumentality of his imperious 
brother-in-law. 

Mr. Elmendorff was always an anti-Federal politician without 
variableness or the shadow of turning, and an old school Dutchman, 
immovable, obstinate and imperturbably good natured. He was a 
member of Congress as far back as the days of William Cobbet in the 
United States, and received from that caustic censor the sobriquet of 
“The bird of wisdom.” 

The opening of the session of 1816 was marked by one of those 
occurrences that shew the facility with which men acting as a body, 
are led to confound power with right, and to do things that in their 
individual capacity they would regard as disgraceful. Experience 
has demonstrated that whenever distinterested justice is obtained 
from one Community—whether a great nation or a petty municipal- 
ity—in behalf of another, it is due to the individuality and conse- 


: 
| 


SISA i ty sy, 1 Political History of New York, I, 397.—W. C. F. 


~ 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 73 


quent responsibility of those who act for it; the substitution of mo- 
tives of selfish advantage for those of fairness and right is the char- 
acteristic of souless corporations of all kinds, and political parties 
are very liable to become similarly demoralized. 
At the election for members of the House of Assembly in Ontario 
- County, Henry Fellows, the federal, was clearly chosen over Peter 
_ Allen, the republican candidate, if a few votes, in returning which the 
proper officer had abbreviated his name and written “ Hen. Fellows”, 
wereallowedtohim. The Clerk of the County, being a mere ministerial 
officer, gave the certificate of election to Allen, who appeared and 
was qualified, as there was no proper tribunal for the decision of the 
question until the House was organized. The moment that was 
done, Fellows applied to be admitted. That his right would be ulti- 
mately established no one doubted, but the question was whether 
the investigation should take place before or after the choice of the 
Council of Appointment. With Allen’s vote we could get the 
~ Council—if Fellows was first admitted, it would be against us. It 
_ is difficult to realize the idea that a great party would allow itself 
to take advantage of an accidental circumstance such as I have 
_ described, to secure to itself a patronage then supposed to amount 

to a million of dollars. But we did it, and there was not the slightest 


circumstances had been reversed. Fellows was admitted to his seat 
immediately after the choice of the Council, with only one dissenting 
voice. Although not a member of that house I was quite as much to 
blame in the matter as if I had aided the step directly, as I was 
pressed forward by my political associates to take a more active 
part in that body than was proper; so much so that Peter A. Jay, a 
federal leader in the Assembly, of fine talents and great personal 
worth, having occasion in debate to refer to a democratic member 
with whom I happened at the moment to be conversing, and affecting 
to forget his parliamentary designation, exclaimed, “I mean the 
gentleman who always speaks with the Attorney General at his 
elbow!” My then recent insurrection against him would prevent my 
_ attempting to screen my own delinquency, under the sanction and, 
_ of course, hearty co-operation of my quondam friend Judge Spencer, 
in the whole affair. The case was in truth one of those abuses of 
_ power to which parties are subject, but which I am sure J could never 
again be induced to countenance.* 

TI was at this time [1816] re-elected to the State Senate by a large 
“majority, notwithstanding a factious opposition in our ranks by 
Judge Spencer’s connections—acting however without his approba- 
tion. No one sooner perceived than himself that the political sceptre 


1This political incident is fully described in Hammond, I, 412. See also Life and 
Correspondence of Rufus King, V, 501—W. C. F. 


doubt that the other side would have done the same thing if the’ 


, 


74 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


that he had swayed so long in State affairs was dropping from his 
hand, and finding his power threatened by a body of spirited young 
men on whom his arts of seduction and intimidation had been equally - 
tried in vain, he looked about for assistance. With this object he — 
turned his attention, as no man but himself would have thought of © 
doing, to Mr. Clinton. It was said, and I believe truly, that he con- 
sulted Gen. Armstrong on the point and that the latter remon-— 
strated earnestly against the proposed step. I met himonthesteamer — 
on our way to attend the Term of the Supreme Court at New York, — 
shortly after my re-election, when he took me aside immediately | 
and assured me that so far from having countenanced the opposition — 
of his friends to my election he had done all he could to prevent it. — 
I begged him to give himself no uneasiness on the point as my friend — 
Chief Justice Thompson had informed me to the same effect during — 
the canvass, and I was very certain besides that he was wholly in- — 
capable of such conduct. He then proceeded to remark upon the — 
happy results of the election throughout the State, and the uses we 4 
ought to make of our success; spoke of healing wounds and the im- — 
portance and advantage of an harmonious party. Having had an ~ 
inkling of what was in the wind I could, without difficulty, place — 
the true construction on such unusual observations from him. I ~ 
-replied therefore that no one knew better than himself how well such — 
sentiments corresponded with my own, and that he might safely — 
count on my co-operation in all measures directed to that end, pro- 
vided that they did not lead to such abrupt changes in our conduct ~ 
and opinions, without a corresponding change in circumstances, as — 
might impair the confidence of the People in our sincerity and cause — 
them to believe that we were making a game of politicks, and play- ~ 
ing it to serve our personal purposes.. He said, certainly! that — 
should be borne in mind, and the subject was dropped, but without — 
the slightest idea on his part of abandoning his purpose; that he ~ 
never did, when his mind was once set on a favorite object. We — 
lodged at the same house in New York, and the matter alluded to on — 
the steamboat furnished the occasion of many early walks together 
on the Battery. F inding that he could not prevail on me t come — 
a party to the Movement he contemplated, he one morning halted — 
suddenly in our promenade and facing me, exclaimed, with some 
feeling, “Why, You are a strange man! When I wanted to have 
Mr. Clinton removed, you were, in point of fact, opposed to it, and — 
now that I want to bring him back you are opposed to that also!” 
I replied that I was not opposed to Mr. Clinton’s restoration to the 
confidence of the party if it was brought about naturally, and facili- 
tated by his own conduct, but that I could neither approve nor co- 
operate in the sudden and unwise way in which he proposed to bring 
it about, which could not fail, I thought, to have the effect I had 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. apes 


alluded to in our first conversation. We were invited a few days 
-after this to dine with Jacob Barker, then a great banker in New 
York, afterwards a lawyer in New Orleans, and everywhere and in 
every situation an extraordinary man, and always my persona] friend 
altho’ never my co-adjutor. 

From his habitual devotion to Judge Spencer and his ambition to 
take part in such affairs, I was quite sure that this was a movement 
in furtherance of the Judge’s project, and that we should meet 
Mr. Clinton at the dinner. On my way to the residence of Mr. 
Barker, in Beekman street, accompanied by Chief Justice Thompson 
and Judge Yates, I asked them whom they expected to meet. They 
mentioned several names, to which I added that of De Witt Clinton. 

-“Why, Spencer is to be there!” exclaimed they, and “that is the 
yery reason!” I responded. I then explained to them what was 
‘going on, which surprised them greatly. Mr. Clinton was the only 
guest present when we arrived. He had come in from the country, 
and I observed was plainly and rather carelessly dressed. We met 
~ him and were received by him very kindly. After a few moments 
Judge Spencer made his appearance, which caused some embarrass- 
- ment on the part of all present. Although there was no direct 
‘recognition between him and Mr. Clinton, neither ° any conversa- 
tion at the table between them, addressed to each other, they talked 
- at each other through the rest of us in subdued and conciliatory 
terms. They had an interview in the evening of the same day, as I 
have always understood, at the residence of Dr. John A. Graham, 
and were formally reconciled. On the Friday following the Chief 
Justice called on me and informed me that, as the Court were to 
adjourn on Saturday, Judge Spencer had taken leave of his brethren 
and was going to Albany that afternoon. As the Legislature were 
to meet on the succeeding Monday for the choice of Presidential 
Electors we conceived his object and sending my papers to a friend 
by the hand of the Chief Justice, I packed my trunk and met the 
Judge and Mr. Clinton on the steamboat. Their familiar intercourse 
was matter of amazement to the uninitiated. Mr. Clinton left the 
boat at Newburgh, and I believe only made his appearance on it as 
an expedient demonstration preparatory to what was contemplated 
further. Very soon after he had left us Judge Spencer invited me 
to an interview in the small after cabin, when he opened his budget. 
He proposed that Chief Justice Thompson and Mr. Clinton should 
be placed on the Electoral Ticket as Electors for the state at large; 
that I might say which should stand first, and that he would pledge 
himself that Mr. Clinton should vote for Monroe for President and 
for Tompkins for Vice President. When I declined to come into 


° MS. I, p. 100, 


MO ae" AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


the arrangement he became much excited, and said that my unwill- 
ingness to confer a mere formal distinction of that character on 
Mr. Clinton betrayed a violence of party feeling that he could not 
have expected from me. I replied, without recriminations, that he 
misunderstood my motives; that if there were no ulterior purpose, 
I would not object to the choice of Mr. Clinton as he proposed, but 
that I believed it was his intention to bring Mr. Clinton forward as 
the candidate for Governor, to supply the vacancy that was expected 
to arise from the election of Gov. Tompkins to the Vice Presidency ; 
and that as I would be opposed to, that step he would think me 
weak indeed if I were to consent to a preliminary arrangement 
designed to promote it.t 

Of course, if he had no such intention my course would be different. 
He was too truthful to deny this, and immediately turned the con- 
versation upon the main question. He asked me, with his peculiarly 
emphatic manner, why I opposed the nomination of Mr. Clinton, 


1“ JT understand that our Mr. Clinton has failed in the project, which he had formed of 
being one of the Electors of this State. He was at Albany, and with a view of reconciling 
himself to his old Friends and Party, as well as to advance a step in the accomplishment 
of his desire to succeed Tompkins as Governor, he made exertions to be put at the head 
of the Electoral Ticket; but on a vote in caucus failed by a large majority against him.” 
Rufus King to Christopher Gore, 22 November, 1816. Life and Correspondence of Rufus 
King, vi, 36. f 

The short session of the Legislature in the fall of 1816 had shown the Republicans to 
be divided between the Clintenians, of whom Judge Spencer was the recognized leader, and 
the follewers of Tompkins and Van Buren, of whom James Emott said that they were 
“ professing to be the true republican party, willing to support caucus nominations and to 
do all the things necessary to promote the views of the holy father [Monroe] at Washing- 
ton, but in fact led by Van Buren and a few young men who mean to make the adminis- 
tration at Washington as well as the good people of this State, subservient to their 
particular views, which are in part ambitious but in main interested.’ It was with the 
idea of breaking the growing influence’ of Tompkins and Van Buren that Judge Spencer 


favored the advancement of Clinton and became reconciled to him. It was said that . 


Clinton had given a pledge to yote for Monroe and Tompkins if his name ‘were placed first 
on the electoral ticket. Seeing that such a concession would give the impression that 
Clinton had become firmly reconciled to the party and was pledged to support all its 
views and principles, Van Buren opposed it, and succeeded in defeating it. The Clin- 
tonians cried out that they had been “ outmanaged,”’ while their opponents boasted their 
superior strength and talent. 

By removing Tompkins to the Vice Presidency the chair of the governor must be filled. 
Hammond describes the three distinct schemes entertained by Van Buren for defeating the 
project of making Clinton governor: 1. That Tompkins should hold both offices and be 
Governor of New York as weil as Vice President ; 2, that the Lieutenant Governor should 
act until the regular gubernatorial election of 1819, a plan opposed by the Clintonians, 
who claimed that the Lieutenant Governor could act only until the next “annual” elec- 
tion; and 3, to obtain a majority in the legislative caucus and nominate an opponent to 
Clinton. After the resignation of Tompkins, which occurred a few days before March 4, 
1817, a measure passed the Legislature providing for the election of a successor, and Van 
Buren voted in its favor. It was thought to have been adopted “not so much to satisfy 
the terms and intent of the Constitution as the whims and expectations of the people.” 
The question of succession was practically determined when the Clinton men obtained con- 
trol of the Council, Webruary 13, 1817. Walter Bowne, John Noyes, John I. Prendergast 
and Henry Bloom formed the new Council, and only Bowne was opposed to Clinton. 
Hammond says “This was a great point gained, and it seems to me Mr. Van Buren and 
Gov. Tompkins, if they possessed the power, should have prevented this. Whether they 
made any systematic effort to do so, I am not advised.’ Van Buren attributes the loss of 
the Council to the “inaction” of Governor Tompkins.—W. C. F. 


ee 


—— ae 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. Wal, 


and, after several earnest and impressive remarks, said he would be 
responsible for Mr. Clinton’s good conduct towards me and my 
friends. I replied with a like proffer of responsibility in favor of 
Chief Justice Thompson, whom we then thought of nominating, on 
which Judge Spencer contracted his brow, rapped his snuff-box, as 
he was wont to do when highly excited, and exclaimed “There, Sir, 
you have touched a cord that vibrates to my heart! I was not 
ignorant that I expose my conduct to unfavorable criticism by my 
sudden reconciliation with Mr. Clinton, so soon after our violent 
quarrel and the many severe things I have said of him, and I am 
not sure that I could have brought my mind to that point had I not 
known that it was your intention to bring that man forward, against 
whom I have cause for resentment that neither time nor circum- 
stances can appease!” I knew very well, without farther explana- 
tion, what he referred to. 

The discussion between the Judge and myself terminated amicably 
but fruitlessly. On our approach to Albany he resumed the sub- 
ject, spoke of his certain success with the Legislature, of the sure 
restoration of Mr. Clinton to power, ultimately, of his kind feelings 
towards me, of my age and prospects, and of the influence upon my 
future success of my course on this occasion. He continued these 
remarks until the moment of parting. 

We met several times at the rooms of the Members, but had too 
much self respect to indulge in disputations on the subject in their 
presence. One or the other always retired, and left the field to his _ 
opponent, and we never had any difficulty in deciding whose turn 
it was todo so. A few hours before the Caucus he told me that they 
would certainly have a majority of twenty; and I asked him whether 
he would do us the honor to visit the Senate Chamber when we ap- 
pointed the Electors, which was to be done on the next day. He 
replied “ Certainly!” I had no doubt that he had received promises 
from several, who, tho’ in their hearts for Mr. Clinton, were not yet 
prepared to support him openly. 

As soon as the Caucus was organized I submitted two propositions: 
one, that the Members from each Congressional District should name 
the Elector for their district, and another that the two Electors for 
the State at large should be selected—one from the Southern and the 
other from the Western District. The first was the usual! mode, and 
to the second there was no objection, as both Mr. Clinton and our 
candidate, Col. Rutgers, resided in the Southern District. They 
therefore both passed with perfect unanimity. As soon as the mem- 
bers had made and reported their district selections, I moved 
promptly that the two Electors from the State at large should be 
designated in the same way—the one by the members from the South- 


78 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 


ern District, and the other by the members from the West. As the 
members from the Southern district were nearly unanimous against 
Mr. Clinton, this proposition produced a perfect ferment in the 
meeting. The Clintonian leaders sprang to their feet, and contended 
with each other for precedence in denouncing the proposition, which 
they characterized by all sorts of hard names. They said that it was 
aimed at Mr. Clinton—as if it could have had any other aim—that 
it was unusual and unfair. A motion was made to amend it, so as 
to provide for a vote for the two Electors by ballot. Speech after 
speech followed on their side—our friends naturally waiting for me 
to defend my own proposition, and I to let the storm spend itself. 

At the first pause I demanded the attention of the meeting as the 
mover of the resolution, which I ought, in common courtesy, to have 
been permitted to explain before it was so grossly assailed. The lead- 
ers of the opposition finding that they had been too hasty, more read- 
ily acquiesced in giving me a fair hearing. I then stated my object to 
be to bring the question of Mr. Clinton’s appointment to a test by the 
viva-voce vote of the meeting; that everybody knew that if my reso- 
lution was adopted he would be excluded—those who were for his 
exclusion voting for the resolution and those who were in favor of 
his appointment voting against it; that in ordinary cases there 
might be no great objection to a vote by ballot, although it was always 
preferable that those who represented others should vote openly, and 
in this case there were circumstances that made the obligation to vote 
openly imperative. No one could doubt that when we were elected 
large majorities of our respective constituencies were decidedly 
against Mr. Clinton, and the proposition to give him the proposed 
proot of the restored confidence of the party was an affair of yester- 
day—brought forward without consulting the People or the possibil- 
ity of consulting them. I was bound to presume, from the well 
known sentiments of our constituents, that the result of our vote 
would be the same whether we voted by ballot, or viva voce and in 
either case against Mr. Clinton, but if it should happen to turn out 
otherwise, there. would, of necessity, be great excitements in the | 
State—thousands would think that a March had been stolen on the 
party—there would of course be a desire to know who had done it— 
suspicion would be spread over the State, and the meeting owed it to 
itself to save each member from the consequences of the acts of 
others, which could only be done by an open vote on the resolution. 
If a majority of the Meeting were in favor of ‘appointing Mr. Clin-. 
ton, and should say so in an open and manly way, I would cheerfully 
submit to the decision, but no right-minded man could, upon reflec- 
tion, desire such a result without being at the same time willing to 
bear the responsibility of it. After pressing these and similar con- 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 79 


siderations upon the meeting I resumed my seat, and after a few short 
speeches on the other side, the names of the members were called, and 
the resolution was adopted by a majority of nineteen, and our Elec- 

tors were appointed. 

Judge Spencer did not keep his promise to come to the Senate 
the next day, but appeared on the day after jaded and dispirited. 
He had not, however, the slightest idea of giving up the contest, 
but complained bitterly of the feeble manner in which their cause 
had been sustained in the Caucus, although he said that while they 
submitted to their present defeat, they would contest the nomina- 
tion ° for Governor in the same way next winter and that he trusted 
that we would also acquiesce if they succeeded, to which I readily 
agreed. 

Legislative caucuses were then, as has been shown, the regular 
mode of nomination, but, feeling doubtful of their success, the Clin- 
_ tonians commenced, at an early day, to elect delegates from the 
_ Counties represented in the Legislature by federalists, intending 
to claim seats for them in the nominating Convention.t. We fol- 
lowed their example, but in those contests they had one advantage 
over us that we could neither prevent nor, in general, resist. The 
federalists, except a small section called “the high minded” (who 
brought but little aid from the masses) were favorable to Mr. Clin- 
ton. Having lost all confidence in their own success, and feeling 
assured that Mr. Clinton must ultimately come over to them, in 
addition to their indirect assistance of his Cause, which we felt 
everywhere, they sent to our Convention obscure men of their own 
who had no distinctive political character. In this way we were 
defeated in a large majority of the federal counties. They also 
- obtained a preponderating influence, when the Legislature met, tho’ 
not an absolute control, over the new Council of Appointment, in 
_ consequence of the inaction of Governor Tompkins, arising from 
his situation as a candidate for the Vice Presidency, and in a short 
time they obtained a complete ascendancy in respect to all new ap- 
 pointments. 

__ Several meetings were held to establish regulations for the organi- 

zation of the nominating convention, and notwithstanding the mass 
of infiuence that was brought to bear against us, the Clintonians had 
- not yet obtained a majority of the Legislative Members. We resisted 
the admission of delegates not members of either House on the 
ground of precedent, and of the charge of federal interference, in 

° MS: I, p. 105. 


1See Hammond, eSeaey of Political Parties in the State of New York, I, 437,— 
awe C.F. 


80 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 


regard to which we fortified ourselves with well authenticated facts. 
After a protracted debate at one of these preliminary meetings, with 
the reluctant assent of our friends, I proposed to abandon the elec- 
tions that had been made, and to elect the delegates anew on the same 
day in each county, at a time to be fixed, and in case of such an 
arrangement being agreed to, to consent to their admission. This 
reasonable offer was violently opposed, and motion after motion made 
_ for an adjournment, which we were able to vote down. At mid- 
night, Judge [Moak?] Swart, the Chairman, a family connection of © 
mine, and a very upright man, but one of the Congressional pro- 
testers against the nomination of Mr. Monroe, and every inch a Clin- 
tonian, decided that the motion to adjourn was carried. Upon being 
asked to state the vote on the motion, he replied, with great sim- 
plicity, “ Fifty odd to forty odd!” As this was rather too indefinite 
to be satisfactory, we demanded that the names of the members 
should be called and the vote taken more exactly. This was done and 
the result declared to be a tie. We finally consented to an adjourn- 
ment. At the next meeting our proposition was accepted. The dele-— 
gates were again elected, and as Mr. Clinton had undoubtedly made ~ 
some favourable advance in public opinion, and the same influences © 
were again applied, the election resulted as before. My own, the 
adjoining county and the small county of Broome were the oat 
federal counties in the State that returned anti-Clintonian delegates. 

Then ensued one of those stampedes that sometimes occur in all | 
political associations; men running from a defeated party like rats _ 
from a falling house. A number of instances, some amusing and some ~ 
distressing, were presented of individuals, once ranking among the _ 
firmest, now abandoning us under various but generally flimsy pre- @ 
tences. With both wind and tide in his favor and the Council of 
Appointment, that most formidable element of political strength — 
in those days, to a very great extent under his control, Judge Spen-— 
cer soon made a “practicable breach” in our Legislative defences. 
After much difficulty we had settled down upon Judge Yates, with © 
his knowledge and virtual consent, as our Candidate, and his brother — 
Spencer inmedioeele set himself at work to induce or force Yates to’ i 
decline, and succeeded. Only a few days before the Convention the — 
latter invited me to his room, and told me that he must decline. He — 
was apparently entering upon explanations more or less elaborate, — 
when feeling indignant as well as grieved by his conduct but with- — 
out asperity of manner, I said to him that iti was unnecessary to ; 
give himself that trouble, as we had prepared ourselves for the — 


1The real point was whether the counties which were represented by Federalists in — 
the Legislature should send delegates to the nominating convention. By resisting the — 
admission of delegates ‘“‘not members of either House” those Federalist, counties would 
be without representation, and the Clinton support decreased.—W. C. F. : 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 81 


a contingency, and would not be embarrassed by his declension. I 
then shewed him a letter from a friend of Gen. Peter B. Porter, 


} _ giving his assent to be our candidate, if we desired it, and left him. 


I had before this communicated my apprehension on the point of 
Yates’ firmness to Chief Justice Thompson, who scouted the idea. 
At our separate caucus a Senator from the Southern district, Mr. 
Crosby, with whom opposition to Mr. Clinton was an absorbing 
passion, presented his venerable and imposing figure to the meet- 
ing, and expressed a desire to ask a few questions of Mr. Van 
Buren, if he had no objections to answer them. On receiving a 
satisfactory assurance he asked for my opinion of the probable 
_ result of the approaching Convention. I gave him my impression 
in regard to our numbers, and my reasons for fearing that these 
would, under the circumstances, be diminished rather than in- 
creased, and that consequently we must be defeated. This, he said, 
was his own opinion, and he then desired to know whether in such 
an event I was willing to retire, with others similarly disposed, and 
to put Gen. Porter in nomination. I answered promply and de- 
cidedly, “ No!” and after stating the part that we had taken in get- 
ting up the convention, and our consequent obligation to acquiesce 
in the result, added that if we could be found capable of opposing 
its decision for no other reason than because we found ourselves in 
a minority, our bad faith would reduce us from our present ele- 
vated position as the main body, justly se regarded, of the Repub- 
lican party of the State, to that of a faction, like the Burrites and 
Lewisites, which struggled for short seasons and then disappeared 
from the stage; but that if, on the other hand, we calmly pursued 
a steady and consistent course—upholding the time honored usages 
of the party and submitting to all that was done under them, until 
we could regain the ascendancy in the usual way—and if Mr. 
Clinton should, notwithstanding, subject his administration to 
federal influences, as we all supposed he would, and as I thought 


he would not be able to avoid doing even if he were so disposed, 


we would soon have the power to overthrow it, and to re-establish 
the Republican party upon its ancient foundations. These views, I 
added, were founded upon the assumption that the convention would 
be organized with tolerable firmness, but if the majority committed, 
in its organization, some act of violence, some palpable outrage that 
would be apparent to all, I would consider the binding character 
of their proceedings destroyed, and would in that case, and only in 
that case, unite with those who might be so disposed, retire from 
the Convention, and appeal to the People thro’ the nomination of 
Gen. Porter. Mr. Crosby then asked me to specify what I would 
regard as a proceeding authorizing the step he had proposed. I 
127483°—vo1 2—20——_6 


82 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. — 


answered that there were several cases of disputed seats in the 
Convention, all of which, except one, might, I thought, be decided 
against us without furnishing a ground of complaint of the char- 
acter required.. The exception was that of the Dutchess County 
delegation. There were serious objections to the regularity of the 
choice of our delegates, but for the admission of the Clintonian 
delegates there was no ground or pretence whatever. If the con- 
vention rejected our delegates and admitted the others I would 
be ready for opposition. Mr. Crosby, who religiously believed that 
there was nothing the Clintonian majority would not do to obtain 
power, declared himself entirely satisfied, and our caucus dissolved. 
In deciding on the representation from Dutchess the Convention 
took up first the case of our delegates and rejected them. It then 
proceeded to consider the claims of the Clintonian delegation, and 
the leading members from the Federal counties, such as Gideon” 
Granger, John Woodworth, and Nathan Williams, made animated 
speeches in favor of their admission. 
Our friends generally, and I among the rest, deeming the de- 
cision certain, took up our hats to repair to the Senate Chamber to 
nominate Porter, but the affair was destined to a different dénoue- 
ment. Perley Keyes, a Senator on our side, and, tho’ a plain farmer, 
a man of very rare sagacity, and Dr. Sargeant, long a distinguished — 
Republican member, a sincere man, but drawn by special cireum- 
stances into the Clintonian ranks where he had become a leader, 
lodged at the same hotel. After the separate caucuses, which had 
both been held with closed doors, broke up, Senator Keyes invited 
the Doctor to a friendly consultation, and communicated to him 
confidentially what we had decided to do, and the latter agreed to 
exert all his power to prevent a rupture in the party by rejecting — 
both sets of delegates from the county of Dutchess. I saw them 
together several times behind the Speaker’s chair, during the debate, 
but had no idea of the subject of their conversation; Keys, it after- 
wards appeared, having sought these interviews to strengthen the — 
Doctor’s nerves under the violent® outpourings that came from his 
side. Dr. Sargent waited until the debate was drawing to a close, — 
when he made, as he was very capable of doing, an able and effective’ 
speech against the admission of their delegates, dwelling mainly on 
the probability that their admission might break up the convention, 
and the folly of thus endangering the cause, when they had a 
sufficient majority of undisputed votes. Not one of the newly elected 
delegates voted with him, but he carried a sufficient number of those 


+The convention was ehid at the Capitol 25 March, 1817. ° MS.) Depsddo: 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 83 


xt morning the principal part of the New York delegation, 
ng a man of so much moderation as John T. Irving, called 
and. insisted, without assigning any new reasons, that I 
stil unite oh them in nominating an opposing candidate. 
eption that I gave to this application offended them, and my 
tical candle was thus lighted at both ends. Mr. Giition was 
nin: a and elected by an immense majority. 


CHAPTER VI. 


The Year 1817 was distinguished by the first and settled commit- 
ment of the State to the Canal policy that has since been prosecuted 
with such signal success. It is not to be denied that a large majority 
of the prominent men of the political party to which I belonged were 
very decidedly opposed to this policy. They regarded it, with few 
exceptions, as impracticable, and as brought forward principally 
thro’ the influence of Mr. Clinton, at the most depressed period of 
his political career, with views rather to his own than to the interest 
of the State. As to the first objection there was room doubtless for 
an honest difference of opinion, but it must. also be admitted that 
their prejudice against Mr. Clinton, personal and political, in some 
degree disqualified them from forming a safe opinion upon the sub- 
ject. I did not in the least doubt that Mr. Clinton hoped to advance 
his political interests by the agitation of the question, but I could 
not concur with my friends in finding in that conviction sufficient 
ground for opposing the measure itself, if its prosecution should ap- 
pear to me practicable and beneficial to the State. A Bill ‘authoriz-— 
ing the commencement of the Erie Canal passed the House of Assem- 
bly at the previous session and came to the Senate near the close of it. 
The necessary information not having in my opinion been obtained 
to justify its passage I moved, successfully, that all the clauses of 
the Bill that authorized the commencement of the work should be 
stricken out, leaving only the section making an appropriation for 
further surveys and estimates. Mr. Loomis, a Western Senator, and’ 
friend of Mr. Clinton, but moderate in his politics, and an ardent 
advocate of the Canal, on its own merits, admitted that the views I 
had expressed in support of my motion were entirely correct. I be 
lieve that he voted with us, but am certain that he was content with 
the result, and 1 well remember the satisfaction he expressed that I 
had not fallen into the error so prevalent in both parties—that of 
looking upon the measure with eyes chiefly directed to its political 
bearings. 

When the Bill was before us at the next session the necessary 
information had been obtained, and Judge Hammond (in his Politi- 
cal History) does me simple justice in the credit he concedes to me 
for the influence I exerted to secure its passage.1_ My brother-in-law, 


1This measure was adopted in the House by a vote of 64 to 36, the majority being 
composed mainly of the followers of Clinton and some Federalists. In the Senate the 
bill received 18 votes in its favor, and 9 in opposition. ‘‘ There were five senators who 
were zealous anti-Clintonians who yoted for the bill. Perhaps it is not too much to 
say, that this result was produced by the efficient and able efforts of Mr. Yan Buren, 
who was an early friend of the measure.”’ Hammond, History of Political Parties in 
the State of New York, I, 441.—W. C. F. 


84 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 85 


Senator Cantine, a very ardent politician, and a pure man in public 
and in private life, supported it earnestly. I believe our adverse 
votes would have caused its failure, but am quite certain that we 
could, if so inclined, have defeated it with the greatest ease. I made 
an elaborate speech in its favor, of which a report was attempted but 
acknowledged by its author Col. Stone,‘ (a life long political oppo- 
nent) to be very imperfect—for which he assigned complimentary 
reasons, saying that he had found it difficult to report me generally 
from the rapidity and animation with which I spoke, and that on 
this occasion he was led to abandon the attempt by the great interest 

he felt in the speech, and his gratification at its character. 

_ I perhaps pressed the subject with greater earnestness because a 
large majority of my political friends differed from me, and some 
blamed my course. Mr. Clinton was in the Senate Chamber, and 
listened very attentively throughout, and altho’ it was only a few 
weeks after he had obtained the nomination for Governor, which I 
had so zealously opposed, and our personal intercourse was very 
reserved, he approached me, when I took my seat, shook hands with 
me, and expressed his gratification in the strongest terms. From 
that period to the end of my employment in the service of the State, 
I supported with fidelity and zeal every measure calculated to ad- 
vance its Canal policy, and opposed as zealously, every attempt to 
prostitute that great interest to party purposes. 

My shrewd friend, Senator Keyes, who was opposed to the Bull, 
informed me that he intended to offer an amendment providing for 
a branch canal from the main trunk to Oswego, in which place I 
was largely interested, and that the success of the amendment must 
depend upon my vote. I remonstrated with him on the unkindness 
of his course in seeking to connect my action upon so important a 
subject with my private interest, but told him that I should assuredly 
vote against the amendment on that ground, if there was no other. 
He notwithstanding offered it; I voted against it, and it was de- 
feated. The construction of that ‘branch many years afterwards 
proved of great advantage to the interests both of Oswego and of 
the State. 

After the signal triumph of Judge Spencer in forcing the nomi- 
nation of Mr. Clinton upon the party I did not much regret the 
necessity that presented itself to encounter him again at this session 
in one of those political skirmishes for which his passion was in- 

- nate and insatiable, and in which, if I often succeeded, it was be- 

cause I consulted my judgement more and my temper less, and be- 

cause I took greater care to be right. In consequence of our respect- 

5 


1 William L. Stone, conductor of the Albany Daily Advertiser, a leading federal news- 
paper, and later editor of the Commercial Advertiser of New York City.—W. C. F. 


86 AMERICAN ‘HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, a e 


able force in numbers and the preponderance of talent in our Sena- 
torial ranks, conceded by Judge Hammond in his Political His- 
tory,! at the time of Mr. -Clinton’s election, we were not long in se- 
curing a majority in that body, which, tho’ generally willing to sup- 
port such of Mr. Clinton’s measures as were not in themselves ob- 
jectionable, could not be regarded as politically friendly to him. If 
matters were left to their natural course it was not likely that his 
friends could improve his condition in this respect, and it was 
not strange therefore that an administration that owed its existence 
to extraneous means, should find itself compelled to resort to sim- 
ilar appliances for its support. A case for this sort of interference 
was presented in this its first year. 

The seats of Mr. [William] Ross, of Orange County, a Clintonian, 
and of my friend Mr. Cantine, of Coe bequmae vacant and were 
to be filled at the next election. The particular counties in each 
District from which candidates for Senatorial vacancies should be 
taken were then designated at the seat of Government by the repre-— 
sentatives of the District in both branches of the Legislature. The 
counties already named were fairly entitled to be, and would, under 
ordinary circumstances, have been selected, but such a result would 
have left things precisely as they stood, the one being favorable 
and the other adverse to Mr. Clinton. A project was therefore 
started by Judge Spencer to give to the county of Otsego, already 
represented by Judge Hammond, a Clintonian, another Senator, to 
the exclusion of Greene, on the pretence that by a critical examina- 
tion of the relative population of the counties composing the Dis- 
trict, Otsego was better entitled to two Senators than Greene to one. 
On my way to the meeting of the representatives of the District at 
the Capitol, I was confidentially informed by a personal friend who 
generally acted with the Clintonians, that there had been private 
meetings of the members on that side, attended by Judge Spencer, 
in which it was agreed to give the vacancies to Orange and Otsego. 
I met Mr. Ross, at the door of the Senate, in the act of leaving the 
place of our meeting, called him aside, and denounced in strong 
terms the intrigue of which I had just been informed. He said he 
had nothing to do with the affair. I told him that could not well 


1“ Mr. Van Buren, of course, felt a deep interest in the choice of the council of appoint- 
ment. His object would not be accomplished if men were placed in the council, a major_ 
ity of whom were decidedly hostile to the governor. In that case the public would im_ 
pute all the errors which might be committed, to the council, and judge of the executive 
by his speeches. Nor was he willing that Mr. Clinton should have a council which 
would accord with him in all his views, and be subservient to his wishes. It would, he 
thought, be more desirable to form a council which the governor could not control, but 
for whose acts the public would hold him responsible. In other words, Mr. Yan Buren 
wished to create a council which should be nominally Clintonian, but which, at the 
same time, should be really hostile to the governor. Partly by management, and partly 
by accident, a council of the character last described, was actually chosen,” Hammond, 
History of Political Parties in the State of New York, I, 457.—W. C, F, : 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 87 


be reconciled with the fact that some of the meetings had been held 
in his room; that if the perpetration of this outrage was persevered 
in we would not support him, and that he knew us well enough 
to judge whether we would keep our word. He showed confusion 
and alarm. Our meeting was soon after organized by placing Gen. 
Belknap of Orange in the Chair—a warm friend of Mr. Clinton and 
a very upright man. Judge Hammond, who was the leader on the 
Clintonian side, and whom, judging from the candour and integrity 
exhibited in his History of the times, it must have caused Judge 
Spencer some labour to bring into the support of the contemplated 
arrangement, moved that one of the Senatorial candidates should be 
taken from Orange, in regard to which there was no dispute. I 
moved to amend by adding Greene for the other, so that the question 
should be taken on both vacancies at the same time. Judge Ham- 
mond assigned plausible reasons against this course, without ad- 
mitting that there was any opposition to Greene, and without know- 
ing that I had been apprised of their plans. After skirmishing in 
this way long enough to be satisfied that he did not mean to be more 
explicit, I made a full statement of the information I had received, 
challenged a denial of its correctness,° and receiving none, de- 
nounced the projected scheme in decorous but severe terms, as a 
proof of a determination to break up the party. Mr. Hammond 
was not, as he says himself, an expert debater, and discomposed by a 
statement of facts, not complimentary to the fairness of those with 
whom he was acting, entered with evident embarrassment upon the 
exhibition of his statistics in regard to the population of the coun- 
ties, and other pretences that had been constructed by the movers 
in the plot. We scouted all his calculations as indicating a chaffer- 
ing disposition inconsistent with that confidence and fraternal feel- 
ing which had in time past characterized the action of the party. 
We affirmed that the treatment of the small counties, that consti- 
tuted nearly half the district, had always been of the most liberal 
character, and that not an instance could be cited in which a double 
representation in the Senate had been given to a large county, as 

long as there was in the district a small county not represented, and 
finally we exclaimed against the propriety of a separate and private 
understanding by a portion of a political brotherhood about to as- 
semble to promote the common cause, pledging itself to a particular 
course without hearing what the rest had to say against it. 

Gen. Belknap, the Chairman, very unexpectedly to all, rose from his 
seat, and, tho’ no speaker, said in impressive terms that he had at- 
tended the meeting alluded to, and had promised to vote for the 
exclusion of Greene, but that he was now satisfied that he had done 


° MS. I, p. 115. 


88 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 


wrong, and that he would vote for my amendment. Mr, Throop — 
from Chenango, who had been a clerk in my office, but was a zealous 
Clintonian, next made an elaborate explanation of his present views 
and his reasons for not voting as he had pledged himself to vote. 
Whilst he was speaking, Hammond turned to me and said, “ Would 
you believe it, Sir! That young man has been one of the chief 
Agents in getting up this business!” When the vote was taken 
my motion to include Greene was carried by a large majority. I was 
detained in the Senate Chamber longer than the rest, and when I 
went out I found a solitary individual, walking to and fro on the 
Capitol Porch, whom in the uncertain light of the hour I did not 
at first recognize, but I soon made him out, by his habit of humming 
over the head of his cane, to be Dr. Davis, one of the Orange county 
representatives. I approached him, and asked him what kept him 
there at that time of night. He answered, with a hearty laugh, that 
he was positively afraid to go home; that Judge Spencer was wait- 
ing for him at his room, and he did not know how to explain their 
defeat, as they came to the meeting with a pledged vote of two thirds 
in their favor, and had been defeated by about the same number! 
I advised him to tell the Judge that their cause was not an honest one, 
and that was the reason of its failure. 

Gov. Clinton’s inauguration was quite an imposing affair, as I 
understood, and conducted in excellent taste. Having, contrary to 
my usual course in such cases, agreed, on the suggestion of Judge 
Thompson, not to attend, I did not witness it, and was accordingly 
very much surprised to hear afterwards, that the latter was present, 
with his family, and that my absence had in consequence been more 
noticed than it might otherwise have been. This act, so inconsistent 
with his general conduct, was caused by an influence which in its. 
usual and appropriate sphere is generally both benignant and auspi-. 
cious, but when exerted in the uncongenial paths of politicks is rarely 
happy and always out of place. Knowing the Chief Justice to be. 


1 This incident of the senatorial election is more fully described by Hammond: 

“Before the middle district convention adjourned, it was resolved to appoint a com- 
mittee to draft an address to the electors of the district, on the subject of the approach- 
ing election. Mr. Van Buren was appointed chairman of that committee. Another 
person agreeing with him in political views, and myself, were of that committee. He 
drew an address, in which he reviewed the political contest between the two parties 
during the late war, and most soundly abused our old political opponents. The poor — 
federalists, who were so far from being dangerous, that they had no idea of opposing 
our candidates, be they who they might, very justly might have complained of this treat- 
ment as illiberal, if not cruel. But on the part of Mr. Van Buren, the measure was 
politic and judicious. If the Clintonian republicans refused to sign the address, then 
it was evidence of what was charged against them,—*a secret understanding with the 
federalists,—if they signed it, then the federalists might be told, that they had no more 
to expect from one class of the republicans than from another, for both had joined’ 
in the uncalled for denunciations against them. The address eventually was signed 
indiscriminately by all the republican members.” Hammond, History of Political Parties 
in the State of New York, I, 471.—W. C. F. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 89 


when left to himself a perfectly straight-forward man, I did not, as 
I would have been justifiable in doing, break off my intercourse with 
him, but contented myself with making him sensible of the injustice 
he had done me, without asking or receiving explanations. 

A few evenings afterwards I was visited by Gen. Solomon Van 
Rensselaer, the Adjutant-General, who brought me a message from 
Gov. Clinton to the effect that there was nothing in his feelings 
towards me that would prevent on his part the maintenance of 
friendly relations, and that he sincerely hoped that such would be 
the case; that he did not of course expect me to support any of his 
measures which I did not approve, but would be happy to find that I 
judged his administration fairly. I reciprocated these friendly assur- 
ances with much cordiality, and requested the General to say to the 
Governor that all I asked of him was such an administration of the 
Government as would satisfy our old political friends that he desired 
to sustain the Republican party of the State, in which event I could 
make myself useful to it, and would take great pleasure in doing so. 
I felt the awkwardness of sending such a response through a high- 
toned federalist, but thought it due as well to the Governor as to 
myself, to make him understand my position correctly. He and 
Judge Spencer might, at that time, by their joint influence, have pre- 
vailed upon two of the four members composing the Council of Ap- 
pointment to consent to my removal from the office of Attorney Gen- 
eral, and thus might have effected it by his casting vote. By omitting 
to make the attempt between July 1818, when he entered upon 
the duties of his office, and January 1819, when a new Council was 
chosen, he proved the sincerity of his professions made thro’ Gen. 
Van Rensselaer. Of the new Council not a single member could 
have been induced to vote for my removal, and by the next—the only 
one in which his friends obtained a majority—I was removed." 

At the meeting of the Legislature in 1819 the Rubicon was passed 
by the Clintonians and a speedy separation of the party made cer- 
tain. They decided to support for Speaker of the House of As- 
sembly, Obadiah German, a Senator in Congress during the War, 
and its violent opponent. He was to our friends the most obnoxious 
man in the Clintonian ranks. It had for a series of years been the 
practice of the Republican members to meet in the Senate Chamber, 
and to select, by a majority, the individual to be voted for as 
Speaker, and the choice thus made was always regarded as binding 


iThe new council was composed of Yates, — Barnum, EF. William Ross 
and George Rosencrantz. It was elected with the aid of Federalist votes, only John 
A. King, Duer and Carman being opposed. ‘These decided not to vote for the Clinto- 
nian council because of the treatment of the senatorial question by Governor Clinton. 
It was supposed that the Governor was hostile to the re-election of Rufus King, and 
this supposition was confirmed when Judge Spencer was put forward as the candidate 
of the governor’s party.—W. C. F, 


90 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


on the party. Owing, in some degree, to mismanagement, partly to 
the unpopularity of German, and, to a small extent, to the absence 
of members, we obtained a majority in the Caucus, and nominated — 
Mr. [William] Thompson, of Seneca, for Speaker. This result © 
astounded Mr. Clinton and his friends, who from having ridiculed — 
the idea of opposition to German were now filled with consternation. 
Instead of uniting in the choice of Thompson, as they should have ~ 
done (the place not being one of primary importance) they decided — 
in the excitement and confusion of the time to elect, and did elect 
German, by a union with the federalists.* 3 ; 
The effect was electrical, and from one end of the State to the ~ 
other there was a revulsion of feeling in the minds of Republicans ~ 
inclining them to join hands at the Governor’s expence. This gen- — 
eral sensation brought to Albany Jacob Barker, of whom I have al- — 
ready spoken, and who was always set in active motion by a crisis, 
as had been shown on many occasions during the War. He possessed — 
the full confidence of Judge Spencer, and a large share of that of 
the Governor and of his new friend Judge Wiliam W. Van Ness. 
Barker confirmed the worst accounts they had received from the — 
counties and impressed them strongly with the necessity of taking — 
some step that might subdue the excitement, or at least divert the 
public mind from the subject. A vacancy had been produced on the 
Bench of the Supreme Court, and the coup d'état proposed by Barker 
was that the Governor should nominate me to the Council for the — 
Judgeship without enquiring whether I would or would not accept 
it. I have before described the relations that always existed be- 
tween Barker and myself. He came to me, after a full consultation — 
with the three gentlemen I have named, and first requiring and ob- 
taining my promise that I would say nothing in regard to my own 
feelings upon the matter he was about to lay before me, proceeded — 
to inform me fully of his plan, to which, he said, all the gentlemen 
referred to had assented. His argument was that whether I accepted — 
cr not, it would be sufficient to repel the charge of Mr. Clinton’s sub- 
serviency to federal influence; and if I accepted it would remove me 
from a place where I was very troublesome, to one where I could — 
exert less political influence. The only difficulty, he told me, arose — 
from a promise the-Governor had made to appoint Mr, [John] 
Woodworth, but that they thought could be overcome. . 
He subsequently described to me an interview between Judge — 
Spencer and Woodworth, the object of which was to induce the latter 
to relieve the Governor Lan his promise, the particulars of which 
were too characteristic of the parties to require, with me, any other 
proof of their authenticity. But Mr. Woodworth stood fast on his — 


14 full account of this election is given in Hammond, History of Political Parties in 
the State of New York, I, 477.—W. C. F. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. ot 


bond. The interference of his brother-in-law, Gen. Stephen Van 


Rensselaer was next called into action, but with no better success. 
They were all greatly dissatisfied with this pertinacious selfishness, 
but the Governor, having received a personal favor from him, ful- 
filled his promise and nominated Woodworth. It is probable that 


_ when the result was found to be inevitable the proposition spoken of 


by Judge Hammond of appointing two additional Judges, and my- 
self as one of them, was proposed by Mr. Barker, and abandoned 
on being opposed® by Judge Spencer and the Governor.* I have 
no idea that either of these gentlemen knew that I had been apprised 
of these circumstances, or that they would have been much dissatis- 
fied with the fact if they had known it. 

The blunder of the administration in regard to the choice of 
Speaker, was, shortly after, followed by an event that served to 
strengthen us greatly. A vacancy occurred in the Board of Canal 
Commissioners, and I was told by a federal member of the House of 
Assembly, opposed to Mr. Clinton, and who subsequently became a 
member of the party known as “ the high-minded,” that if we would 
bring forward a candidate against Ephriam Hart the Clintonian 
candidate, who was not acceptable to him and his friends, there 
would be found votes enough on the joint-ballot to secure his elec- 
tion. I proposed my friend Henry Seymour, father of the present. 
Governor [Horatio Seymour] to whom he at once agreed. On the 
joint-ballot, we, to the surprise and deep regret of the Governor and 
his friends, elected Mr. Seymour by a majority of one vote.” This 
eave us a majority in the Canal Board and I am quite confident that 
we derived more advantage from the patronage and influence attached 


to it than the Governor obtained from the Council of Appointment, 


which was embarrassed by the circumstance that it had to minister 
to the cravings of a party composed of discordant materials. 

While things were going on in this way, I one day received, in 
court, a note from Judge Spencer, written on the Bench, saying that 
he desired a private interview that evening, and would meet me either 
at his house, or at mine, or at the residence of his son-in-law. I 
returned an answer before he left the bench that I would come to his 
house in the evening. 

The state of party-feelings at the time may be inferred from the 
fact that we were both sensible that it was necessary to make our 
interview strictly private to prevent. its being used by mischevious 
persons to foment jealousies among our friends. He received me 
very kindly at the door, introduced me into his library, and turned 
the key. He soon disclosed his object by expressing a strong desire 


° Ms: I, p. 120. g 
1 Hammond, History of Political Parties in the State of New York, I, 490.—W. C. F. 
2Hammond, History of Political Parties in the State of New York, I, 495.—W. C. F. 


92 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


to have the harrassing distraction in the party healed, and he had 
sought this interview to ascertain whether a candid talk with me 
might not lead, in some unexceptionable way, to the accomplish- 
ment of that result. He had not been able to digest any plan of his 
own, and was throughout, what was very unusual with him, em- 
barrassed by his consciousness of the difficulties that surrounded the 
subject. I was pleased to find that the idea of any action on my part 
separated from my political friends, did not, at any time, appear to 
have entered his mind, and I observed to him that while my con- 
victions of the impossibility of carrying his wishes into effect were 
very strong, I need give him no assurances in regard to my personal 
feelings and inclinations, as he had shown his sense of them by ask- 
ing the interview. Among many other things, I urged the difficulty 
of bringing the Republicans on our side, and for whom we claimed 
that they constituted the main body of the party, to unite in the 
support of an Administration by which Judge William W. Van Ness, 
Elisha Williams, and many other prominent federalists were recog- 
nized as political and confidential friends and advisers. I could con- 
ceive of no way in which this objection could be obviated, that the 
Governor would feel himself at liberty to adopt; professions and 
assurances however honestly made, would, in the present state of 
-political feeling, pass for very little, and nothing short of an open 
rupture with those gentlemen would inspire even the well-disposed 
on our side with confidence in any arrangement we might adopt. 
Mr. Clinton having received two Speakers and a Council of Appoint- 
ment at the hands of those gentlemen could not now shake them 
off to conciliate old friends even if he could bring his own feelings 
to such a step. He admitted the difficulties that beset their path in 
that regard, and felt them the more sensibly as Judge Van Ness, 
whom he once heartily disliked, had by this time conciliated his 
esteem—and Judge Spencer was as sincere in his friendships as he 
was thorough in his aversions. 

After conversing until a late hour we seemed both satisfied that 
nothing effectual could be done to further the object of our con- 
sultation, and were about to part, when he said that there was 
another subject on which he wished to speak, but was embarassed 
as to the manner of introducing it lest he might be misunderstood, 
and give offence where certainly none was intended. He proceeded 
to describe the pressure that had for a long time been made upon 
Mr. Clinton for my removal and the force that these applications 
derived from the circumstance that I was regarded as the leader 
of the opposition to his administration. I interfered at this stage 
of his remarks by begging him to permit me to anticipate what he 
desired to say which as I presumed was that if my opposition was 
continued the Governor would feel himself obliged to consent to 


ee eee 


a 


} 


ie 
f 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 93 


my removal. I then observed that as this was not intended as a 
menace, of which I had not the slightest suspicion, and which he 
earnestly disclaimed, I could have no objection to its introduction; 
that I was not sorry it had been introduced, as I had for some time 
been anxious to be fully understood by the Governor and himself 
upon the point. I said that I had obtained my office from the same 
source from which the Governor had derived his place, and was 
earlier in possession. I sustained him in the leading measure of 
his Administration—that of Interna] Improvements—but it was 
complained that I was taking measures to prevent his re-election. 
This I had a right to do, and I denied that he had any authority 
to use his power, derived as it was, to coerce me into his support. 
But at the same time I admitted that these views, had, by the course 
of events, and conduct of parties, come to be regarded as mere 
abstractions ;—that I was by no means certain that I would act 
upon them myself if our cases were reversed ;—that I had for a long 
time regarded the loss of my office, when the Governor obtained the 
power to remove me, as the probable consequence of my persistence 
in the course I felt it my duty to pursue, and that he might rest 
assured that he would hear of no personal complaints from me or 
my friends on account of my removal. 

Judge Spencer acknowledged emphatically the liberality of my 
feelings, and the regret he would experience if matters took the di- 
rection referred to, (in which I did not doubt his sincerity, for not- 
withstanding occasional exhibitions of great violence, he was cap- 
able of generous impulses)—and said, as I rose to leave him that? 
he was happy we had met, because altho’ we had accomplished noth- 
ing upon the main subject, our conversation could not fail to give a 
milder tone to our future differences. 

The session terminated without any change in the posture of polit- 
ical affairs, but also without my removal taking place. In the heat 
of summer I received an order from the Governor to attend the Dela- 
ware Circuit, and to take part in a laborious and difficult trial for 
Murder in Delaware County, and meeting him the next day, at the 
Canal Board, he asked me whether I had received his order. I an- 
swered affirmatively but enquired whether he thought it quite fair 
as matters stood, (alluding to the called meeting of the Council of 
Appointment, and the expectation of my removal during my absence) 
to send me in such weather upon such a service, and proposed to him 
to consent that I should employ Counsel on the spot, at the expense 
of the State. He understood my allusion, and colouring, said, “ No! 


Great interest is felt in the case, and the public will be disappointed 


if you do not go!” 
Before the adjournment of the Legislature I said to Gen. German, 
in a jocose way, that his friend the Governor gave the State a great 


94. AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. = ——™ : 
deal of trouble, that his adherents ought to apply to Mr. Monroe to 
send him on some distinguished foreign mission, and that he would — 
be strongly tempted to unite in the measure, to which he made some © 
reply, in a similar vein. On my return from the Delaware circuit 
IT met the General on his way from New York, where the Council 
of Appointment was is session, to his residence in Chenango. He 
left his carriage, came to me and saluted me very cordially. I asked 
him the news—what was the Council about, and has it made a new 
Attorney General? He replied “Wot yet,” and then referred to 
our former conversation, and said he had felt desirous to see me in 
the hope of being able in some way to arrest the divisions that were 
spreading in the party. I replied by giving to that conversation its 
true character, but adding seriously that if the Governor was will- 
ing to accept a foreign mission, I for one, would be happy to see 
him get it. He said “No, No.”—on which I told him at once, but in 
kindness, that for anything else it was too late; that the Governor 
must either put us down, or be put out himself; that as matters 
stood the leading men of both parties would only discredit them- 
selves with the People by attempting to patch up a truce. “Well,” re- 
plied he, ‘‘it requires no prophet to tell us which of those results 
will happen”—and we separated. I have always supposed that the 
General had asked them to delay the removal until he could see me, 
and that he wrote to New York from the nearest post-office, after 
our interview, as I received my supersedeas almost immediately 
thereafter.* . | 
Chief Justice Thompson, having received the ° appointment of 
Secretary of the Navy, and there being besides strong objections 
to his nomination for Governor on the part of some of our best men, 
we determined, before the Legislature separated, informally, to 
bring forward Vice President Tompkins. All admitted the Chief 
Justice to be honest and sincere but it was thought that he did not 
understand the feeling of the party sufficiently, and might quarrel 
with it before his term of office expired. Although I had been very 
instrumental in giving -him the political prominence he possessed, I 


1“ In July [1819] the Council met again. Although the removal of minor office hold- 
ing Bucktails and the appointment of Clintonians had been very general; yet Mr. Van 
Buren, who stood at the head of the opposition to the Governor, and led on the attack, 
had been allowed to hold one of the most important, influential and at that time lucra- 
tive offices in the State, the office of Attorney General, undisturbed. It was urged that 
this inconsistency in the conduct of the administration ought to be obyiated; and after 
much and long hesitation the Council removed him, and appointed Thomas J. Oakley in 
his place . . . Mr. Van Buren, according to the maxim which before had, and since has 
governed his political conduct, had no right to complain, and in fact, I believe, he did 
not; but an outcry was of course raised in the newspapers, on account of the remoyal 
of a republican from an important office, and the appointment of a federalist in his 
place.” Hammond, History of Political Parties in the State of New York, I, 507, Oakley 
was the Dick Shift of the Bucktail Bards.—W. C. F, 

°MS, I, p. 125, 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 95 


came to pretty much the same conclusion—for many reasons, one of 
which I will mention by way of illustration. We went together to 
the Delaware Circuit—in which county Gen. Root lived and then 
exercised undisputed and indisputable political sway—and on our 
way I expressed a hope to the Chief Justice that he would shut his 
eyes to the General’s foibles, and treat him kindly. For a few days 
_ their intercourse was mutually satisfactory—so much so that the 
latter confessed to me that there were good points about Thompson 
of which he had not before been sensible; but before the Circuit 
closed his prejudices were more than ever aroused and I could not 
even prevail on him to take a respectable leave of the Chief Justice. 
- The knowledge of our intention in regard to the Vice President 
was the signal for opposition to the settlement of that portion of 
his accounts for War expenditures that had to be audited by the 
_ States officers before it could be allowed at Washington. Until 
_ then all went on smoothly and his accounts would have been with- 
_ out a doubt, but for that circumstance, satisfactorily settled. He 
soon came to an open rupture with the Comptroller McIntyre (a 
zealous friend of the Governor) who made an appeal to the public 
in the form of an official letter, signed as Comptroller, and addressed 
_ to-the Vice President.‘ I went to the residence of the latter at 
Staten Island, as well to obtain his consent to be our candidate, as 
to tender all the aid in my power in preparing an answer to the 
Comptroller’s letter, with copies of which the State had been in- 
_ undated. I soon found that he was strongly impressed with the idea 
that I wanted the nomination myself, and persisted in declining, 

until I alluded in terms to his motive, and gave him assurances = 
his error which he could not but believe, when he consented to our 
wishes. But when we came to the examination of his papers I 
found him, in comparison with what he had been, exceedingly 
helpless. Conscious of his integrity in all things—sensible of the 


_ great services he had rendered to the country at periods of its ut- 


_ most need, and of the-disinterestedness of his motives, (which had 
_ been strikingly displayed by his refusal to be drawn from his Post, 
_by the temptation of the office of Secretary of State) his oe 
had not been callous or his resolution strong enough to enable him 
to bear up against the injustice, the ingratitude cad the calumny 
of which he was now made the victim. He could not speak on the 
_ subject of his accounts with composure, or look at McIntyre’s letter 
without loathing. When told of the indispensable necessity of giv- 
ing to those matters prompt and thorough attention, he said, he 
could not help it, and throwing down a bunch of Keys, exclaimed, 
“There are the keys of my private papers, without reserve—here is 


+A letter to his Excellency Daniel D. Tompkins, late governor of the State of New 
York. The answer was entitled: A Letter to Archibald McIntyre, comptroller of the 
_ State of New York. It ran through two editions.—W. C. F. 


96 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 


my friend Mr. Leake—he knows a good deal about the papers and 
will cheerfully give you all the aid in his power, and, when you 
want explanations come to me.” 

On examining his private letter-book I found.a correspondence 


between him and Thomas Addis Emmett containing an offer of — 
the office of Attorney General, and its acceptance. I immediately — 


went to the garden where he was, with the book in my hand, and 
said to him “ Vice President, I find here that you were the author 
of an appointment that I have always attributed to Mr. Clinton,” 


and showed him the correspondence. He replied “ Certainly, Gov. — 


Clinton knew nothing of the matter. I wanted to have Thomas and 
Southwick convicted of the bribery they practiced on the passage 


of the Bill to incorporate the Bank of America, and thought you — 


too young for that service; and I knew besides that you would 
come to the office early enough.” 
The knowledge of the injustice that I had for so many years 


done to Mr. Clinton in this regard distressed me and made me after- _ 


wards more cautious how I trusted to mere inferences in important 
matters. There was then an impassable political gulf between us, 
and no suitable opportunity was presented for explanation, but I 
am. sure this discovery had its influence on my dispositions towards 
him at another and very critical period of his life. 

In the course of my early interviews with the Vice President I 
imbibed a suspicion that the habit of intemperance, to which he, 
in the end, fell a melancholy victim, had commenced its fatal rav- 
ages upon him. The Secretary of the Navy, (Thompson) whose 
son had married the Vice President’s daughter had taken a cottage 
for the summer on the island, but was absent from home when I 
arrived. On his first visit I proposed a walk, and in reply to his 
question as to the condition in which I found the Vice President’s 
papers, I answered “So far, very well, but there is another matter 
that has afflicted me more.” I then asked him whether it had ever 
occurred to him that our friend was becoming intemperate. He 
paused a moment, and replied, with more feeling than was common 


to his nature, but with his habitual truthfulness, that he could not — 


say that the idea had not at times passed thro’ his mind, but that 
he had watched him as closely as he could, with propriety, and satis- 


fied himself that his indulgence was temporary, occasioned by ‘his, # 


troubles, and would soon wear off. I hinted at the fearful respon- 
sibility I was assuming in pressing his nomination if it should 
turn out differently. He concurred very fully in this and said that 
he trusted I knew him too well not to be satisfied that he would 
be the last person to advise me to persevere if he thought there was 
any real danger, and that he would not fail, if my apprehensions 
were realized. to step forward, and share the responsibility with me. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 97 


This relieved my mind, but I prepared, notwithstanding, an anony- 
mous letter to the Vice President which I intended to put in the 
_ post-office, when I reached the city, but my courage, which was 
_ never yet equal to such a performance failed, and when I got to 
New York I destroyed it. 
I soon found not only satisfactory but highly creditable explana- 
' tions of transactions that figured largely in the Comptroller’s letter, 
in the federal presses, and in the pamphlets which the enemies of the 
Vice President had written on the subject of his accounts. When my 
examination was finished and he was delighted with the case he 
was about to present, I was pleased to witness the revival of his 
spirits and, with them, of his adroitness, tact and power. He pro- 
posed to read his Reply first at a private meeting of the most dis- 
tinguished of his personal and political friends—a step of the utility 
of which I became very sensible when I found that these numerous 
gentlemen, after having been thus consulted, identified themselves, 
_ in some degree, with the document, and were as much interested in 
_ its success, as they could have been if they had themselves written 
it. My experience on this occasion had its influence in inducing me 
ever afterwards to submit my own papers destined for publication to 
the widest inspection of my friends, with liberal permission to 
suggest improvements, and unaffected dissatisfaction if they failed 
to avail themselves of it. There was one, and only one point on 
which the Vice President and myself differed, and that will show 
the effect that injustice had produced on a mind naturally the most 
disinterested and self-denying, by tempting him contrary to the 
usage of his life, to become the trumpeter of his own glory. I de- 
sired to give the largest share of credit for results that had in fact 
been produced by his individual efforts and sacrifices, to the 
patriotism of the People, but he thought he had acted on that prin- 
ciple long enough, and that the time had arrived when he ought to 
claim what belonged to him. His version of the matter was inserted 
in the letter, with an engagement on his part, to state to the meeting 
our difference of opinion on the point, when he reached it, and to 
abide by their decision. When I looked at the list of persons he had 
prepared to compose the meeting I was amused with the complexion 
_ of some of its parts, and yet nothing could have been more judicious 
_ than such a selection. At the door of the place of meeting I met 
Martin S. Wilkins, the Vice President’s class-mate and early friend, 
who, altho’ an honest man in all respects, was substantially a 
monarchist in his politics. Recognizing him, in the obscure light 
of evening, and notwithstanding my previous knowledge that he 
was to be one of the company, I said, “ Mr. Wilkins you have made 
some strange mistake in coming here!” 
127483 °—vo.t 220-7 


98 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


“Not at all,” he answered, “is not this the house of Jonathan — 


Thompson ?” 

“Yes!” said I—‘but there is to be a democratic meeting here 
tonight” (that term having come into use instead of Republican) 
“and I am very sure that you do not go to such gatherings.” 

“That is true enough” replied Wilkins, “I don’t care a d—n for 
your democracy, but I take an interest in the success of honest men, 
and believe my old schoolmate Daniel D. Tompkins to be one, and 
I come here to-night to be confirmed in that opinion!” 


The Vice President made some very impressive remarks illustrat-_ 


ing the truth of the statement upon the expediency of publishing, 
on which he and I had differed—justifying the inferences he had 
drawn, and strengthening the propriety of his position and con- 
cluding with the declaration that the time had arrived when he ought 
to do himself justice. Forming their® opinion upon these grounds 
only, there appeared to be a general sentiment in the meeting that I 
was wrong, followed by a remonstrance with me for my opposition. 
In reply I dwelt for a short time on the danger of a man who had 
always been so modest in speaking of his own merits changing his 
character in that regard, particularly under his present circum- 
stances, which as they stood were well calculated to excite public 
sympathy; but when I came to describe the uses that Mr. Clinton’s 
caustic and busy pen would make of such seeming self adulation, in 
a degree at the expense of the People, and at a moment when we 
were seeking their favor, there was a change of sentiment, except on 
the part of Mr. Wilkins, who contended that this flattering the 
People was all stuff, and that the better way was to tell the truth 
and abide the consequences. The rest advised the Vice President to 
yield for the sake of policy—notwithstanding the truth of what he 
proposed to say—which he did with a good grace. The letter was 
received with the greatest favor, and embarrassed Governor Clinton 
and his friends exceedingly. 

The country was filled with the most exaggerated reports in re- 
gard to the claims preferred against the State by the Vice President. 
I offered a resolution, early in the next session, calling on the Comp- 


troller to report the claims made, whether the accounts had been — 


settled according to the provisions of an act passed at the last ses- 
sion,* (before it was suspected that he would be a candidate) and if 
not, the reason for the omission. That officer sent in an elaborate 


reply which was referred to our committee. We made a report, 


simple and unvarnished, stating the whole case in a way to be easily 
understood by the People, and accompanied it by a Bill directing the 
Comptroller to pay to the Vice President Eleven Thousand Dollars, 


°MS. I, p. 130. 
1 Session Laws of 1819, p. 286. See Hammond, History of Political Parties in the State 
of New York, I, 508.—W, C, F. 


— —- ——s 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 99 


as the balance fully due to him from the State. When this Bill was 
before the Senate I made a Speech that was very extensively pub- 
_ lished and was entirely satisfactory to the friends of the Vice Presi- 
_ dent.* Gideon Granger, the Post Master General under Mr. Madi- 
son, who had been elected to the Senate from the Western District, 
_ was expected to reply, but did not do so, hor was any answer made, 
and the Bill passed the Senate by a vote of two to one. To prevent 
_ the influence of his silence, it was said and published that Mr. 
_ Granger had temporarily lost his voice by a severe cold; which was 
_ partially true, but from the sympathy of which he gave unmistak- 
_ able signs, whilst listening with respectful and undivided attention 
_ to the recital of Tompkins’ services, persecutions and sufferings, I 
inferred a better reason for his disinclination to speak against him, 
_and gave him credit for his forbearance. Mr. Lot, a Member from 
Long Island, and an ardent friend, was so far moved by the same 
_ cause that he wept like a child and was obliged to leave the chamber. 

The Vice President arrived at Albany from Washington about 
_ this time, and was received by our friends with wild enthusiasm. A 
meeting? composed of the Democratic members of the Legislature, - 
and citizens in great numbers and from all parts of the State, and 
_ over which I presided, was, a short time afterwards, held at the Capi- 
tol, by which Tompkins was nominated as a Candidate for Governor 
with great unanimity and enthusiasm.’ After an unusually animated 
_ contest in which each party exerted itself to the utmost, Mr. Clinton 
_was re-elected by a small majority, but neither of the results I pro- 
posed to Gen. German occurred: we did not turn the Governor out, 

nor did he put us down. Although we lost our Governor we chose 
a Legislature by which I was appointed a Senator in Congress, and 
which turned McIntyre out of the office of Comptroller, in which 
he had worked so hard against us. 

Several other stirring events transpired at the session of 1820. Mr. 
Clinton called the attention of the Legislature, in his speech, to the 
“Missouri Question, and recommended action upon that subject. I 
was not favourable to his recommendation, but unwilling to give 
him the advantage of wielding so powerful an influence against us 
_as it would have proved to be, if we had opposed it. Incessant at- 
tempts were made by his friends to place me in that attitude. Per- 
“Mission was asked, and given, to use my name in a notice signed by 
1Speech in the Senate of New Pork, on the Act to carry into effect the Act of 13th 

pril, 1819, for the settlement of the late Governor's accounts. Albany, 1820.—W. C. F. 
ce 22, 1820. In an account of the meeting, written by John A. King to Rufus King, 
he said: “A well written address and Resolutions were then submitted by Mr. Van 
a e chairman to the meeting, and were adopted with long and repeated cheering.” — 


he question of Tompkins’ accounts remained open until after the election, and un- 


7 ubtedly played some part in defeating him. In November. 1820, a measure was intro- 
4 ced, and passed without opposition, ending the controversy by enabling the accounts 


be balanced.—W. C. F. 


100 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


- the most respectable citizens of Albany, of all parties, calling a meet- 
ing to take the sense of the People on the subject. I was necessarily 
absent, on a foreign circuit, when the meeting was held, and refused 
my assent to their proceedings when they were presented to me, be- 
cause they bore on their face the stamp of political and partisan” 
designs. A letter was written to me by the gentleman who obtained 
permission to use my name, evidently intended for publication but it. 
was deemed inexpedient to publish my answer when they received it.* 
When the Resolution was acted upon in the Senate there was neither 
debate nor a call of the Ayes and Noes; and it was silently passed. 
I was in my seat and would have voted for it if a formal vote had been 
taken and I always afterwards therefore admitted my share of re- 
sponsibility for its passage. It may be said that in overlooking the 
bearings of the question upon the happiness of the People for whom © 
Congress were acting, and allowing myself to be influenced by a 
desire to prevent the Governor from making political capital out of 
his recommendation, I placed myself on the same footing with h’m. 
As to motives I can only say that I state mine truly; that I acted on 
the defensive, and that I had no hand in bringing the matter forward, 

The re-election of Mr. Rufus King to the United States Senate 
was another feature of this session that excited much feeling and 
not a little surprise from the circumstance that it was unanimously 
made by men, most of whom opposed him at the preceding session. 
An appointment had been attempted then and failed because of the 
three candidates brought forward respectively by the Clintonians, 
Republicans and Federalists neither could obtain a majority of the 
whole vote, necessary to obtain a majority in either House; the 
strength of the Democrats and Clintonians being nearly equal, and 
divided between Col. Young and John C. Spencer.’ 

In the recess I became, I believe for the first time, acquainted 
personally with Mr. King, and from my connection with the defense 
of Vice President Tompkins, in which the subject was noticed, be- 
came also better informed of his patriotic course in support of the 
War after the capture of Washington, and his urgent appeal to the’ 
Vice President, then Governor, to assume every responsibility and 
to trust for indemnity to the justice of his Country. Influenced by 


1 Henry F. Jones, Jan. 19, 1820, to Van Buren and draft of Van Buren’s answer, Jan. 
21, are in the Van Buren Papers. 

2'The three candidates proposed were John C. Spencer by the Clintonians, Samuel 
Young, by the republicans or “ Bucktails”” and Rufus King, by the federalitsts. “In the 
assembly Mr. Spencer received fifty four votes, Mr. Young forty four, and Mr. King 
thirty four. Some of the members, who, on the resolution, voted for Col. Young, when 
the resolution was lost, voted for Mr. King. The whole number of republican votes, in 
poth houses, for Col. Young, were fifty seven, while those given to Mr. Spencer were 
sixty four; showing evidently, at that time, a republican majority in the legislature in 
favor of Mr. Clinton; but the preponderance of talent was decidedly with the Bucktails.” 
Hammond, History of Political Parties in the State of New York, I, 486. The details of 
the proceedings-are told in John A. King to Rufus King, February 2, 1819. Life and 
Correspondence of Rufus King, VI, 202.—W. C. F. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 101 


these considerations, and doubtless stimulated by a desire to obtain 
for Tompkins the votes and support of that section of the federalists 
called “the high-minded ”—then supposed to be quite influential— 
I resolved, before the meeting of the Legislature, to support his 
re-election. To this end, I prepared, under the pressure of my 
numerous other avocations, a Pamphlet in his favor, which I sub- 
mitted to the examination of Mr. William L. Marcy, by whom it was 
much improved, from which circumstance Judge Hammond, in some 
degree correctly describes it as our joint production. The pamphlet 
was sent to the Members before they left home, and had, it was 
_ believed, considerable effect upon their opinions. It was signed 
_ “A Member of the Legislature” but generally understood, and not 
_ denied, to come from me. With the exception of a few members of 
the delegation from the city of New York, who never forgave my 
refusal to unite in an adverse nomination to Mr. Clinton, the vote 
_ of the Legislature was unanimous in favor of Mr. King’s re-election. 
. No one supposed for a moment that Mr, Clinton and his friends 
were otherwise than hostile to the measure, but it was well under- 
stood that they voted for it for the same reason which they charged 
influenced us; that of gathering strength for the Gubernatorial 
- election. The part I took in the affair was a stereotyped charge 
against me for the remainder of my political career, brought forward 
by different parties and factions in turn as the shifting phases of 
party politics made it their cue to lay hold of the subject. That 
_ good natured but most unscrupulous politician, Major Noah, then 

_the Editor of the National Advocate, applied for and obtained a 
_ confidential communication of my views on the subject as necessary 
_ to the proper discharge of his editorial duties. When he became, 
in the progress of time, opposed to me, he furnished to my enemies 
for publication extracts from my letter, shamefully garbled, but 
_ even in that state harmless. In 1840, when he felt rather friendly 
again, he, to my amusement, offered the letter to a political friend to 
save himself from the importunities of the Whig Committee of Rich- 
mond, who he said were anxious to obtain it, having evidently for- 
_ gotten the roguish use he had himself, years before, made of its 
_ contents.* 


1This letter is printed on p. 138 of the Autobiography. The autograph draft is in the 
_ Van Buren Papers. Rufus King gracefully noted his indebtedness to Van Buren, in the 
| following extract of a letter to John A. King, January 14, 1820: “The part taken by 
_ Mr. Van Buren has indeed been most liberal, and as I conceive at the risk of impair- 

ing his high standing and influence among his political friends; do not fail therefore to 
_ inform him that I can never be insensible of his generosity and that no occasion can ar- 
rive, that I shall not be ready to prove to him the personal respect & esteem with 
which he has inspired me.” Two months later (March 18) he wrote: “To the Vice 
President I am not a little indebted for the support without which Mr. Clinton and his' 
federal friends would have succeeded in degrading me. To Van Buren more especially 
_ am I most particularly obliged ; whose views and principles, as far as I have understood 
| them, deserve my hearty approbation.”—W. C. F. 


102 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, - 


The election of 1820 resulted in the choice of a Democratic ma- 
jority in the House of Assembly, and we availed ourselves of our full 
possession of both branches of the Legislature, at the Extra session 
called for the choice of Presidential Electors in the fall of that year, 
to pass a Bill providing for a Convention to amend the ° Constitution 
of the State, which was rejected in the Council of Revision by the 
casting vote of Gov. Clinton. Two friendly Judges, Platt and Van 
Ness, were absent on their circuits; Chancellor Kent and Judge 
Spencer were known to be against the Bill, and the vote of Judge 
Woodworth, who had been recently nominated by Governor Clinton 
was confidently counted on to save the latter from the necessity of 
giving the casting vote. To the surprise of every one, and the in- 
dignation of the Clintonians, he voted with Judge Yates, and thus 
produced the tie.2 A law was passed early in the winter session 
to submit the question of Convention or No Convention to the Peo- 
ple in the spring, who decided in favor of holding it by a majority | 
of seventy thousand. 


° MS. I, p. 185. 

1In the session of 1817-18 Ogden Edwards, of New York, brought a bill into the 
assembly for calling a State convention to consider such parts of the constitution as 
related to the appointment of offices. The object was to substitute for the council of 
appointment some other method of appointing officers. Hammond advised Clinton to 
adopt the suggestion and couple with it an alteration and extension of the right of 
suffrage. ‘All men had become disgusted with the appointing power, under the old 
constitution, and so universal was the opinion that a change ought to be made, that 
I was satisfied that the council of appointment could not much longer form a part 
of our governmental machinery. The right of suffrage, too, was more restricted in 
this State than in any other of the northern or middle States; and I was satisfied 
that public opinion, in a State so highly democratic, would not much longer endure 
the restriction” (Hammond, I, 469). Although Clinton controlled one branch of the 
legislature and could have directed the course of the question he refused to support it, 
presumably on the ground that the project had originated in the opposition. Edward’s 
bill was rejected. 

The idea of a convention was not abandoned by those opposed to Clinton, and his 
re-election in 1820 produced the necessary unanimity. Local meetings were held ad- 
vocating a convention, and the democrats, “‘ perceiving that the only sure means” of get- 
ting rid of Clinton was by changing some of the methods of government, ‘availed them- | 
Selves, with great skill and adroitness, of the propensity of the people for an alter- 
ation of the constitution to effect that object.’ It was to be a convention with un- 
restricted powers, not confined only to the machinery of appointments. Clinton was 
now in favor-of the plan, and wished the question of calling a convention to be sub- 
mitted to the people; but the democrats were in a majority in both houses of the — 
Legislature, and passed a measure providing for a convention, the results of which 
were to be submitted to the people for confirmation or rejection. The Clintonians 
feared that it was the purpose of those favoring a convention of unlimited powers to 
abolish the existing judiciary system, and introduce a new one not containing the pres- 
ent judges and chancellor, who had created a prejudice by their political activities, 
Gaining confidence in their ability to manage the convention after their own wishes, 
they yielded and joined in favoring the movement. The bill was thrown out by the 
Council of Revision, as related by Van Buren. To overcome the opposition of the 
Council some leading Federalists proposed to have the Council of Appointment ap- — 
point three additional judges, and if experience should show there were then too many 
judges, a convention might be called to modify the judiciary department so as to “ in- 
sure an unpolitical tribunal.” Rufus King refused to give his support to this sugges- — 
tion, and it was never seriously discussed.—W. C. F. i 
? The same story, with other details, is told by Hammond, History of Political q 


Pe 


in the State of New York, I, 545.—W. C. F. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 1038 


These circumstances seemed to overthrow the popularity of the 
Governor, already greatly shaken, and induced his friends to advise 
him to retire to private life at the end of his term, as he decided 
to do. The Assembly also chose at the Extra-session a new Council 
of Appointment of which Skinner, Bowne, and Evans were mem- 
bers. Evans came to Albany, an honest and intelligent young man 
from the Western District as a Clintonian, but being disgusted with 
his Associates in the Legislature, he sought me out, in one of our 
Caucuses, before they separated from us and when their leaders were 
trying, against our opposition, to obtain an adjournment, and told 
me that he had lost all confidence in the men with whom he was 


acting, and asked me to consent to an adjournment, which I cheer- 


fully did, from which time to the end of his life he was my fast and 
active friend politically and personally. 


1This election was held on November 8, 1820. The full council was Walter Bowne 
of the southern district, John T, Moore, of the middle, Roger Skinner of the eastern, 
and Dayid DB. Evans, of the western. The Clinton candidates were Townsend, Ross, 
Frothingham and Barstow. Skinner was at this time United States Judge of the 
northern district of New York, as well as a member of the State Senate.—W. C. F. 


CHAPTER VII. 


The first question that presented itself at the ensuing winter session . 
was that of filling the vacancy in the office of United States Sena- 
tor, occasioned by the expiration of Mr. Sanford’s term. Our 
friends came to Albany in the opinion that the time had arrived 
when my services ought to be transferred to the Federal government. 
Mr. Sanford received a few votes in Caucus, but on the appointment 
every democratic member voted for me, while he received the votes 
of the Clintonians. I had neither solicited the place nor taken a 
single step to promote my election, but was gratified by the distinc- 
tion. My old professional opponent, Elisha Williams, then in the 
Legislature, offered to support me in return for my having once sus- 
tained him against one of my political friends, in a, matter by which 
the fortune of his family was made; I told him that he was mis- 
taken in supposing that he was under any obligation to me, as I hac 
only done in that case what I thought was right—but that I was 
pleased with his sense of the act, and had certainly no objections to 
his easing his mind by returning the supposed favor, which would 
be better done by voting with his federal friends for Mr. Sanford. 
This amused him very much and induced him to say in the House, in 
his own way, that he thought I was the fittest man for Senator, but as 
he was the very incarnation of old Federalism, I would not let him 
vote for me, and he therefore voted for Sanford.* 

In April 1820, some forty gentlemen, of the federal party, most 
of them young men of talent and all occupying respectable positions 
in society, came out with an Address in which they insisted that no 
“high-minded federalist” would support Clinton. The use of this 
expression obtained for them the designation of “the high-minded” 
in the political nomenclature of the times, while their demonstration 
against the Governor secured for them from his friends the less 
flattering sobriquet of “the forty thieves.”* John Duer was their 
ablest man, but his Federalism was so deeply dyed as to neutralize | 


17The caucus for the purpose of naming a candidate for the United States Senate was 
held on February 1, 1821. Sanford was nominated by Mr. Romaine, of New York, and 
Mr. Eldred, of Otsego, brought forward the name of Van Buren. No charges of neglect 
of duty or want of loyalty to the party were made against Sanford, and, it was urged, 
that to set him aside without cause, would be equivalent to a ‘vote of censure, seal his 
political usefulness, and destroy his political character in the public estimation. His 
great knowledge and experience in commercial affairs peculiarily fitted him to repre- 
sent the State in the Senate. Col. Young acted as Van Buren’s advocate, saying that — 
with Rufus King in the Senate the commercial matters would have proper attention, 
and on a ballot Van Buren received 58 votes against 24 for his opponent. A resolution 
was adopted expressive of the confidence of the meeting in Sanford, as balm to his 
wounded feelings.—W. C. F. 

2A list of the forty who signed the address of April 14, 1820, will be found in Ham- 
mond, History of Political Parties in the State of New York, I, 529.—-W. C. F. 


104 


rice fe cee a: 


| 


Sa eal a 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 105 


all his efforts to become a democrat. The sons of Rufus King were 
prominent members. The whole number were indeed Mr. King’s 
devoted friends, and his advancement was the object nearest their 
hearts. Their opposition to Mr. Clinton, to whom they allowed no 
credit for the support his friends had given to Mr. King, was cor- 
dially reciprocated. Tompkins was not to their taste as a candidate 
for Governor, but when his nomination was decided on they supported 
him with zeal and fidelity. 

Pleased with their society and with the spirited manner in which 
they sustained their position, I became more intimate with them than 
was the case with any other prominent democrat, and formed sincere 
attachments to several of their number. Our friendly relations were 
strengthened by the early stand I took in favor of Mr. King, and 
their conviction that he was principally indebted for his election to 
that circumstance, as they well knew that the friends of Mr. Clinton 
would not otherwise have supported him. My partiality for them 
produced heart-burnings on the part of many democratic young men, 
which, in regard to some, were never entirely removed. Federalists 
from their birth, and of the oldest and strictest sect, they could not 
make much impression by their efforts upon the democratic ranks, 
and failing to draw after them those from whom they had separated, 
their success was not equal to their expectations, neither were they 
treated by our party with the consideration which they thought they 
deserved. Resentments engendered on the first moments of separa- 
tion between political associates are always accessible to the mollify- 
ing influences of former sympathies not entirely extinguished, and 
the recollection of common struggles and triumphs in the old cause 
paves the way for re-union. These are more efficient when the cause 
is one in which they or their ancestors have acquired distinction. 
Most of these gentlemen had from early manhood enjoyed high and 
influential position in what was called good society, and the sup- 
position that they expected to occupy, on that account, greater con- 
sideration in the democratic organization was not acceptable in that 
quarter. There was a warm concurrence in feeling and opinion 
between us upon the point that brought us together—opposition to 
Mr. Clinton—but in regard to other matters we were far from enter- 
taining similar views. Upon some of the latter we were called to act 
together at a period when the ardour of our first embraces had in 
some degree subsided. The first occasion of that description was 
presented by the Convention for the Revision of the State Con- 
stitution, which met at Albany in August 1821." 

The County of Albany, where I resided, being then hopelessly 
federal, the democrats of the large agricultural county of Otsego 


1The convention assembled at Albany August 28, 1821, and did not close its sessions 
till November 10.—W, C. FE. 


106 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
/ 


elected me to the Convention without even apprising me of their 
intention. : i 

The federalists insisted, and generally believed that we main- 
tained our ascendency in power mainly thro’ the influence of the 
Council of Appointment, and were therefore feverishly anxious for 
its abolition. Convinced by full experience that the possession and 
distribution of patronage did us more harm than good, as a party. 
I early determined to advocate its diffusion to the widest extent 
that should be found practical and consistent with the public in- 
terest. When asked by the President of the Convention (Tomp- 
kins) on what Committee he should place me, I replied, on that 
“on the appointing power”. Not understanding, or rather mis- 
understanding my object, he smiled, but complied with my wish. 
The fact that I was placed at the head of that Committee? strength- 
ened the opinions of the federal members and made them quite con- 
fident that an effort was to be made to preserve the Council of Ap- 
pointment in a form perhaps changed but of unabated efficiency. 
The President gave me an excellent Committee, embracing how- 
ever, but under proper control, some of the most violent denouncers 
of the Convention. Among these was Judge Ogden Edwards, of 
the New York delegation, an honest, capable and well-meaning 
man, but always overflowing with political prejudices. His dis- 
position in this respect was vouched for by his own father, as re- 
lated to me by my friend, Roger Skinner, who, on his return from 
a visit to Connecticut, his native state, told me that he had met the 
celebrated Pierpoint Edwards, the father of Ogden, and that he 
had added to the usual enquiries about his son the question whether 
“he had got through damning De Witt Clinton yet?” 

I rather mischievously delayed calling my Committee together 
until the suspicions I have referred to had time to mature. When we 
were assembled I proposed to call on each member for his general 
opinions upon the subject committed to us. Mr. Edwards imme- 
diately suggested that the Chairman should give his views first. This 
I declined to do, on the ground that such a course would be contrary 
to parliamentary usage, according to which the Chairman is regarded | 
as a mediator, and, to some extent, an umpire between the conflicting 
opinions of the Committee. / 

The process I proposed was then entered upon, and when finished 
I deferred giving my own views until the next meeting. At that 
meeting I submitted my propositions which were in substance. 

1st To abolish the existing Council of Appointment without sub- 
stituting any similar institution in its place; 


+The full committee contained Martin Van Buren, — Birdseye, 
Jesse Buel, Child, Ogden Edwards, and Rhinelander.—W. C. F, 


Colling 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 107 


2nd To provide for the election of all military officers by the choice 
of Companies, Regiments and Brigades; 

°3d To give the appointment of high Judicial Officers to the Gov- 
ernor and Senate, and 

4th To provide for the choice of all other Officers, save only Jus- 
tices of the Peace, by the People, either through appointment by the 
Legislature, or by direct election. The Justices of the Peace, as Judi- 
cial Officers, ought not, I said, to be elected, but to bring them as near 
to the People as possible and avoid the objections to their election, I 
proposed that two lists should be made in each county, one by the 
Board of Supervisors (who were themselves elected by the People 
in each town) and the other by the county court Judges; whenever 
these two lists agreed the choice should be complete, and whenever 
they differed the Governor should select the Justices from them. 

The jealous members of the Committee were not only disappointed, 
but some of them confounded by my propositions. They went so 
far beyond their expectations, in distributing the patronage of the 
Government, and in removing the grounds upon which they expected 
the battle in regard to the appointing power to be fought, as to 
draw from some the charge of radicalism. The question in regard 
to Justices of the Peace was the only remaining point on which 
speeches that had been prepared, in expectation of a different report, 
could be directed. My recommendations were substantially adopted 
by the Committee, but the portion of them relating to the choice of 
Justices was violently assailed in the Convention by the federal mem- 
bers and also by the “high-minded” gentlemen. I stated frankly 
the principle upon which that part of my report was founded, and 
that I considered it a fair subject for differences of opinion. The 
questions were whether the spirit of the rule, to which every body 
then assented, that the higher Judicial Officers ought not to be elected 
should be respected in providing for the choice of Justices of the 
Peace; and, if so, whether the mode proposed by the Committee for 
their selection was the best. 

Mr. Rufus King attackedthe proposition with great earnestness, 
and scarcely concealed acrimony. After enumerating a few objec- 
tions to its practical operation, he took up the subject of the old 
Council of Appointment, and denounced it as a machine that had in 
times past been used and abused to monopolize central power. Al- 
though his remarks were not directly aimed at me or at my friends, 
they were, I thought, sufficiently susceptible of that construction to 
require notice from me. 

I replied at considerable length and with some warmth and in 
the course of my remarks alluded delicately but intelligibly to one 


° MS. I, p. 140. 


108 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


of the uses that had been made of what he denounced as the Central 


Power of which he had not complained. This affair caused a re- 
serve in our personal intercourse which continued for some time, and 
until the period arrived when our franking privilege as United States 
Senators commenced. He then came to my seat and announced the 
fact to me as a matter that might have escaped my notice, and at the 
same time pressed me to dine with him. 

_~ After dinner he proposed a walk, and in the course of it spoke 
feelingly of the collisions which politica] life almost unavoidably 
produced between the best of friends, and the inquietude growing 
out of them, and said that the best remedy he had discovered was to 
forget and forgive—to sleep upon the matter, and rising in the morn- 
ing to wash, shave, put on fresh linen, and think no more of it. Un- 
derstanding the object of these suggestions, I also came to the con- 
clusion to dismiss the subject from my thoughts, and our personal re- 
lations resumed their previous footing. 


Some time afterwards, and during the session of the Convention, 


an editorial article appeared in the Argus remarking upon this and 
other differences of opinion between this section and the great body 
of our party—admitting that to some extent they had been antici- 
pated as likely to occur in the course of time, but saying that it was 
not expected that they would present themselves so soon. When I 
came into the Convention, John Duer, in a courteous and not un- 
friendly manner, repeated to me the closing words— noé¢ so soon ”— 


w'th significant emphasis. This led to a farther conversation in ~ 


which I admitted that the article spoke my sentiments. We dined 
together at his brother’s lodgings with a few mutual friends, and 
had an animated conversation upon points in regard to which we 
entertained diverse views, in the course of which, becoming con- 
vinced that there were radical differences in our feelings and opin- 
ions which must prevent us from long acting together, I involuntarily 
struck my hand upon the table with unusual earnestness, when he 
instantly turned to me, and said “that is the indication of a grave 
conclusion! May I know what it is, Sir?” I laughed at his inter- 
pretation and turned the conversation into a different channel. 

These occurrences produced distrust, but no personal hostility, or 
even determination to separate. That was brought to pass by the 
ensuing Presidential election, and the influences it called into action. 
A large majority of the Democrats supported Crawford, the rest 
dividing upon Adams and Clay. The “high-minded ” espoused the 
cause of Mr. Adams zealously, and the feelings produced, or rather 
revived by that contest carried them back into the federal ranks,— 
then called National Republicans—where the survivors are still 
serving as Whigs. 


vO 


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EM ae KP ee Ey rear 


itl. ie ae heme tr, 
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CHAPTER VIII. 


All personal intercourse between Charles King, Editor of the New 
York American, and myself was for many years broken off. After 
he had retired from the Editorial profession, and had, I believe, 
received the appointment of President of Columbia College, we hap- 
pened to meet at an entertainment given at the opening of a new 
Club House in New York. He approached me and entered into a 
familiar conversation upon the topicks of the day. So long a time 
had elapsed since I had seen him that I took him for his brother 
James? and reciprocated his address very cordially, but the idea of 
my mistake soon occurring to me the conversation gradually stiff- 
ened on my part, and he, perceiving and understanding it, rather 
abruptly but gradually withdrew. My son, Col. Van Buren, stand- 
ing at some distance, and witnessing and comprehending the whole 
scene, advanced towards me as Mr. King walked away, and said “I 


‘saw that you did not at first recognize your old friend Charles.” 


I confessed that I had not, but as it had ever been my practice to 
continue the war as long as my adversary desired it, but always to 
be prepared for peace, I sought him out, and renewed a friendly 
intercourse that has since been uninterrupted. 

Thus disappeared from the political stage a party which, though 
small in numbers produced nearly or quite as great an impression 
as its predecessor and counterpart, in respect to size, the Burrites—in 
their day distinguished by the name of the “Little Band.” The 
latter were heard and felt through the pamphlet of “Aristides” 
written by William P. Van Ness.*—a production of great celebrity in 
its time—the Morning Chronicle, edited by Peter Irving, elder 
brother of Washington Irving, and the “ Corrector,” a stinging little 
sheet, edited by a number of young men and to which, I believe 
Washington Irving was a contributor. The New York American, 
edited with great ability, and a series of clever publications, of 
which “ Dick Shift”? (supposed to have been written by John Duer) 


- was the most piquant, were the oracles of the “ high-minded.” The 


Burrites were headed by Aaron Burr, and the sons of Alexander 
Hamilton were prominent members of the “ high minded ” party. 

To the latter belonged indisputably the paternity of one public 
measure, namely the attempt to impeach William W. Van Ness. 
one of the Justices of the Supreme Court, for receiving a bribe from 


1James Gore King. 

2 An examination of the various charges exhibited against Aaron Burt, Vice-President of 
the United States, and a Development of the Characters and Views of his Political 
Opponents. By Aristides. 1803.—W. C. F. 

_ 8See the letter from Johnston Verplanck to Van Buren, December 25, 1819, in the Van 
Buren Papers.—W. C. F. 
109 


110 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


the Bank of America, to secure the assent of the Council of Revision, 
of which the Judges were then members, to the act of incorporation. 
The fact that the Bank obtained its charter thro’ the most daring and 
unscrupulous bribery practiced upon various persons, occupying ° 
different positions in the public service, is undeniable. The matter 
was investigated with great solemnity by a Committee of the House 


of Assembly, appointed on the motion of Erastus Root, upon the 


exhibition of the charge made by the Editors of the New York 
American, Charles King, Johnston Verplanck and James A. Hamil- 
ton, over their own signatures. The Judge appeared before the 
Committee, supported by an imposing array of Counsel, and the 
principal part of the session was occupied with the examination. 
The Committee finally reported that there was no ground for the 
interference of the House, but the public mind did not respond 
favorably to the conclusions of the report. The consciousness of 
this fact preyed upon the Judge’s spirits, and hurried him to a 
premature grave. 

Judge Van Ness was by nature the ablest man among his asso- 
ciates in public life. His facilities for early improvement had been 
but limited, and he had no taste for deep study; the brilliant repu- 
tation he established as a lawyer and Judge was therefore mainly 
founded on the raw materials with which nature had liberally en- 
dowed him. His personal figure was imposing and his manners 
peculiarly fascinating—so much so that even his enemies courted 
his society. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 
1821, which was the last public station he held. In that body. a 
proposition was introduced by Gov. Tompkins, and supported by 
Erastus Root and a host of other democrats, to vacate the offices of 
the Chancellor and Justices of the Supreme Court by the new Con- 
stitution. Although the Convention had the power to do this, it 
had certainly not been expected by the Legislature or the People that 
such a step would be taken. Sincerely desirous to secure the respect 
and sanction of the public for our proceedings and opposed upon 
principle to a course so proscriptive, I threw myself in the breach 
against the weight of my party and opposed the proposition. To 
neutralize the prejudices of friends, and to conciliate moderate men, 
whilst resisting a measure, the success of which threatened all that 
remained of the former greatness of Judge Van Ness, I deemed it 
a fit if not a necessary occasion to allude to our past relations. This 
was done in a speech delivered in his presence, from which the fol- 
lowing in an extract: 

The judicial officer who could not be reached in either of those ways, ought 
not to be touched. There were, therefore, no public reasons for the measure, 


SES oly ap. Ady: 
+See Proceedings of the Committee appointed to inquire into the official Conduct of 
William W. Van Ness, New York, 1820.—W. C. RF, 


i 


and if not, then why are we to adopt it? Certainly not from personal 
feelings. If personal feelings could or ought to influence us against the in- 
7 dividual who would probably be most affected by the adoption of this amend- 
ment, Mr. Van Buren supposed that he above all others would be excused for 
| indulging them. He-could with truth say, that he had through his whole 


life been assailed from that quarter, with hostility, political, professional and 
7 personal—hostility which had been the most keen, active and unyielding. But, 
sir, said he, am I on that account, to avail myself of my situation as a repre- 
sentative of the people, sent here to make a constitution for them and their 
posterity, and to indulge my individual resentments in the prostration of my 
private and political adversary. He hoped it was unnecessary for him to say, 
that he should forever despise himself if he could be capable of such conduct. 
He also hoped that that sentiment was not confined to himself alone, and that 
the Convention would not ruin its character and credit, by proceeding to such 
extremities.* 
A sufficient number of my political friends voted with me to de- 
feat the proposition. The Chancellor and three of the Judges were 
members of the Convention. The latter left soon after to hold the 
Term at Utica, and the democratic portion of the Convention, no 
longer irritated by the active intermeddling of Judges Spencer and 
Yan Ness in matters supposed to have partisan tendencies, was los- 
ing the memory of my rebellion against party discipline and of the 
whole subject; but the return of those gentlemen with renewed ar- 
dour to their work of political intrigue caused a new proposition, 
sufficiently varied in form to evade the parliamentary rule, to be 
promptly introduced by a lay member, and procured for it a vigor- 
ous support. I felt that I could now do no more than give a silent 
yote against the measure. The proposition was adopted, the offices 
of the Judges were vacated, a new Governor was elected before the 
time arrived to fill the vacancies, and neither Spencer nor Van Ness 
were renominated. They both resumed the practice of their profes- 
sion, but his misfortunes preying upon Van Ness’ proud spirit his 
health failed, and he went to South Carolina in the hope of re-estab- 
lishing it, but there, soon after, died at the house of his connexion, 
Mr. Bay, a highly respectable resident of Charleston. I was inform- 
ed by Mr. Bay, many years afterwards, that, in the closing scenes of 
his life, the Judge spoke often and feelingly of his political and per- 
sonal controversies, and that whilst he referred with much severity 
to the conduct of some of those with whom he had been in collision, 
he took pains to say that he should die without complaint or bitter- 
“Ness against me, who, altho’ among the most uniform of his oppo- 
nents, had always treated him frankly and fairly. His unfriendliness 
throughout his public life did not prevent my sincere sympathy with 
him when he fell, and with his friends in their prayers over his 
ashes. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. Et 


2Reports of the New York State Convention, 1821 (Carter and Stone), p. 535. 


112 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


A new Constitution was adopted by the Convention providing for 
increased action on the part of the People themselves in the manage- — 
ment of public affairs, and liberalizing and elevating the political — 
institutions of the State to the standard required by the advances 
made by public opinion in that direction. 

I have noticed the part that I took in regard to two questions that 
were acted upon by the Convention because they were more or less 
complicated with other matters. To do as much in reference to all, 
would require more space than I think it would be proper to devote 
to the subjects here. There was scarcely any question raised in the 
discussion of which I did not participate to a greater or less extent, 
and those discussions as well as the votes that followed them are to 
be found reported in the official proceedings and published accounts 
of the doings of the Convention, which publications, altho’ not accu- 
rate throughout, are sufficiently so for all important purposes. 

On one point only will I add a few words of explanation, because 
it has been the subject of much remark, and of much partizan misrep- — 
resentation. 

At one stage of our proceedings I was alarmed at the ground taken — 
by a number of my political friends upon the question of suffrage. 
They seemed willing to go at once from a greatly restricted suffrage 
to one having but the appearance of restriction, which I considered ~ 
very hazardous as well to our institutions as to the success of the work © 
of the Convention. I preferred to move upon this truly important 
point step by step, and to advance as we should find ourselves justified — 
by experience. The partizan policy of advocating extreme measures © 
of seeming popularity, trusting that somebody else would prevent — 
their adoption, or that perchance they might not work as badly, if 
adopted, as my reason anticipated, has never, I can conscientiously ~ 
say, been mine. I therefore exerted myself to moderate the extreme ~ 
views of my friends, and, when necessary, to oppose them until the — 
suffrage was established on what I deemed safe and reasonable 
grounds, For this, and upon the ground of expressions loosely and 
inaccurately reported I was for many years much censured, but, I 
believe, not injured, ‘because the People saw the soundness of my 
motive even thro’ the distorted and false views in which, for Se 
purposes, the subject was presented to them. | 

The new Constitution was approved and adopted by an immense 
majority of the People. Judge Joseph C. Yates was elected Goy- 
ernor, under its provisions, without opposition, Governor Clinton 
retiring to private life, and I soon after took my seat in the Senate 
of the United States. 


1The result showed 75,422 votes in favor of the Constitution and 41,497 votes against 
or a majority of 33,925 on the side of adoption.—W. C. F. 


CHAPTER IX. 


The transfer from the State to the Federal Service has generally 
been considered as a discharge from responsibility for the manage- 
ment of the affairs of the former, but neither friends nor foes would 
permit such a result in my case. The first had claims upon my 
gratitude and good offices that I was not inclined to disregard, and 
the latter found or fancied a party benefit in charging me with 
influencing the action of the State Government from Washington 
_thro’ the agency of representatives at home to whom they gave the 
name of the “ Albany Regency.” : 

The inconvenience, to say the least of it, of this ubiquitous re- 
sponsibility was strikingly and very disagreeably illustrated by 
bringing me very early into disfavour with the new Governor whose 
nomination I had preferred and aided in effecting. Judge Yates 
was an honest man, possessed of a good understanding, who always 
designed to do what he thought was right. He warded off too strict 
a scrutiny into his mental capacities by a dignified and prudent re- 
serve—a policy that long practice had made a second nature. He 
had been strongly tempted, by his marriage connections, to depart 
from the simplicity of life and manners characteristic of his race. 
His first wife was a Kane, a family which almost without exception 
was distinguished for the personal beauty of its members, and their 
natural dignity of carriage, and which had made considerable ad- 
vances towards the establishment of a sort of family aristocracy be- 
fore it gave way under the pressure of adverse circumstances. His 
second wife, with whom he acquired a good estate, was a De Lancey, 
a powerful family at the commencement of the revolution, jealousy 
of whose superior position at Court was said to have had great in- 
fluence in inducing the Livingstons, and other families who figured 
in that contest, to espouse the popular side. My acquaintance with 
Mrs. Yates has led me to regard her as a good woman of superior 
mind and sedulous in the performance of duty. I paid the Judge a 
_ visit at Schenectady at the time when we were preparing to bring 
him forward as a candidate for Governor, in company with several 
of the “high-minded” gentlemen to whom he was very partial. 
While we were at dinner the conversation was mischievously turned 
_ by one of the guests for his own amusement to a matter in regard to 
_ which our host ° and myself had, in past times, stood in opposition 


° MS. I, p. 150. 
127483°—vor 2—20—_8 113 


114 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


to each other. The Judge promptly and courteously said in reference 
to it, “Ah! that was at a time when I did not understand Mr. Van 
Buren as well as I do now!” On which Mrs. Yates turned to her 
husband, and asked with unaffected simplicity whether he was sure 
that he understood me now! The question of course was received 
with a general burst of laughter, and not having the slightest idea 
of incivility or unfriendliness, she began to apprehend that she had 
shown both—an apprehension that it cost me no small effort to efface 
from her mind. The circumstance slight as it was, strengthened 
my impression that she was not in all respects well adapted to the 
office of guarding her husband against the effects of a suspicious 
temperament, which had been always an obstacle to his advancement, 
and was the principal cause of his failure in public life. 

On my way to Washington, in the fall preceding the Judge’s 
assumption of his official duties, I remained some time m New York 
winding up professional concerns at the November Term of the 
Supreme Court. Many of my friends were there in the prosecution 
of their professional engagements, and some were doubtless brought 
there by their fondness for political gossip, and by a desire to take 
leave of me. I had not been long in Washington before I learned, 
thro’ a source entitled to my confidence, that the Governor-elect had 
been told that I had assembled my friends in a private meeting at 
New York, at which we had marked out a course for the Governor 
to pursue as the indispensable condition of our support. There was 
of course not a word of truth in this story, and under ordinary cir- 
cumstances I would have taken no notice of it. But I knew the 
Governor’s disposition, and that he was surrounded by men in whom 
I had little confidence, who owed me no good will and who had 
personal objects which they might hope to promote by availing 
themselves in this form of an infirmity to which they knew him to 
be subject. I therefore determined to address myself to him di- 
rectly, and to make a serious effort not only to disabuse his mind 
upon the particular point, but to prevent the recurrence of similar 
misunderstandings. In the propriety of this course, Mr. King, to 
whom I mentioned the subject, fully concurred, and I wrote a letter 
to the Governor in which I referred to the story I have mentioned 
as a vile falsehood, expressed my apprehension that other misrep- 
resentations of the same character would be made by bad men-for 
selfish purposes, avowed my disinclination to the shghtest personal 
interference in affairs which had, with my hearty approbation, been 
committed to his hands, and closed with what appeared to me a clear 


and conclusive argument to show that I could have no possible inter- — 


ests that would be benefitted by his overthrow and an assurance that 
the first wish of my heart was that he might sustain himself success- 


ite a il 


4 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 115 


3 ; 

fully and honorably in his responsible position. With most men 

this would have been sufficient, but as to him the soil was too favor- 
able to the rank growth of the seed I endeavoured to eradicate and 

the sowers were too numerous and industrious to admit of any 
success to my efforts. He had weakened his position by his jealousy 
to an extent that enabled the friends of Col. Young to nominate the 
latter in his place during the succeeding winter. Irritated by this 
result and distrusting almost every body he was induced to take an 
official step which I will have occasion to refer to hereafter, and 
which finally prostrated him as a public man. 

I entered the Senate of the United States in December 1821, at 
the commencement of Mr. Monroe’s second Presidential Term. John 
Gaillard, of South Carolina, was then, as he had been for many 
years, President pro tem. of that body. I need add nothing to the 
eloquent description given of his character by Col. Benton, in his 
Thirty Years’ View, except the expression of my full concurrence 
in what has been so well said. I was first placed on both the Judi- 

ciary and Finance Committees, and soon succeeded to the Chairman- 
ship of the former, a compliment to so young a man, on his first 
appearance in the Senate, which I could not fail to appreciate. 

There was at this period a perfect calm in the public mind upon 
political subjects, and the Administration continued the course it 
had pursued during the previous term, unlike any since that of Wash- 
ington, without an organized opposition. The important questions 
that occupied the attention of Congress during the Presidency of 
Mr. Monroe were those of Internal Improvements by the Federal 

Government and a Protective Tariff. Stronger proof could not be 
required of the capacity of our system of Government to deal with 
difficult public questions, and the strength it derives from that 
source, than the fact that those disturbing questions, which (particu- 
larly the latter) semed, in the hottest day of their agiation, to 
‘threaten the continuance of the Union, in so brief a period not only 
; ceased to inflame the People, but, in the sense in which they were 
then advocated and opposed, have become virtually obsolete. It is 
also worthy of remark that neither of these great questions originated 
with the Administration, or were regarded as Administration Meas- 
‘ures. They found their origin in other sources and were called into 
“existence by other considerations than those of Executive recom- 
‘mendation. 

_ Mr. Monroe was universally regarded as the last of that class of 
Statesmen to which the country had invariably theretofore looked 
for Presidential candidates. This fact was sufficient to bring for- 
ward for the succession the names of those of the succeeding genera- 
jon who deemed themselves, or were deemed by their friends, as 
jossessing sufficient claims to the distinction. 


116 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 


The most prominent of these were Clay, Calhoun, Crawford and 
Adams. I name Messrs. Clay and Calhoun first because, from very 
nearly the beginning of Mr. Monroe’s Administration, their respec-— 
tive courses were most definitely shaped to that end. 

Mr. Clay was Speaker of the House of Representatives, had re- 
turned with éclat from his Mission of Peace, and enjoyed an exten- 
sive popularity with uncommon facilities for its enlargement. : 

Mr. Calhoun was Secretary of War, the undoubted favorite of the — 
President, and in point of talent, industry and the art of winning — 
popular regard scarcely inferior to Mr, Clay. 

A better field for the display of political ability and tact than — 
that presented to these distinguished gentlemen could not have been — 
imagined. The old Federal Party, yet strong in numbers and rich — 
in its traditions, had been reduced to a low condition by the course © 
it had taken in regard to the War. Its former leaders, either from — 
- policy or conviction, acquiesced in the condemnation that had been 
pronounced upon it, and the future allegiance of its members seemed — 
to be offered as spoils of conquest to democratic aspirants to the — 
Presidency. 

Relaxation of the rigors of party discipline and acts of amnesty 
in favor of vanquished federalists—splendid schemes of Internal : 
Improvement at the expense of the Federal Treasury with munifi- 
cent bounties in the form of encouragements to Domestic Industry 
to the North, the East, and the West, were the popular appeals and — 
blandishments with which Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun, each secure — 
in his position at home, entered into the Presidential Canvass. — 
Hence the continued Agitation of all of these questions from near 
the beginning to the end of Mr. Monroe’s Administration—leaving — 
them at its close as unsettled as they were at any stage of their dis- 
cussion and as it was expedient to Presidential aspirants that they 
should be. These topicks for a political campaign were wisely se-— 
lected, and produced apparently extensive effects upon the public 
mind. The great States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New 
York, with the entire West, swallowed the baits that were held out 
to them under such alluring disguises, in which they were joined by 
the Eastern States as soon as our Yankee brethren saw that the 
protective policy had acquired a sufficient hold upon the country to” 
make it safe for them to divert their superior skill and industry 
from Commerce to Manufactures. So irresistible did the current 
seem to have become that even Gen. Jackson, with all his repug- 
nance to equivocation, and all his fearlessness of responsibility, was 
fain, when he was brought into the Presidential Canvass, to take 
refuge under the idea of a “judicious tariff.” : 

These, as I have said, altho’ the prominent. Measures acted upon, 
could not be regarded as among those of Mr. Monroe’s Administra- 


; 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. IG 


tion. Although he knew that the protective policy was supported 
by several members of his Cabinet, he never recommended it in his 
Messages and he interposed his Veto against a Bill for the repair 
of the Cumberland Road in a message in which the whole subject, so 
far as it related to the exercise of Federal jurisdiction over the 
territory embraced, was elaborately discussed. 
The Cumberland Road was established under the Presidency of 
Mr. Jefferson, and whilst Mr. Gallatin° was Secretary of the 
Treasury. It was originally contemplated to be made out of the 
avails arising from the sales of the public lands, and was established 
to promote such sales. But Congress soon fell into the habit of 
anticipating the receipts from that source by appropriations from 
the Treasury and this [practice] had been almost annually repeated 
for more than twenty years and had received the Executive approval 
from Jefferson and Madison. 
The jurisdiction by the Federal Government, which constituted 
the foundation of Mr. Monroe’s objection had never been exercised; 
but he was, I think, quite right in assuming that the establishment 
and support of the Road involved the claim of a right to its exer- 
cise and therefore fairly presented the constitutional question upon 
which he took, as to that point, the true ground. The Bill came up 
soon after I had taken my seat in the Senate and I voted for it 
rather on the ground of its paternity and the subsequent acquiesence 
in it, than from an examination of the subject. The whole matter 
was afterwards very thoroughly investigated by me when I found 
reason to regret that vote and to take not only an early opportunity 
to avow my error but also a decided stand against the claim in both 
aspects of Jurisdiction and Appropriation. 
The unavoidable and improper conflict of jurisdiction between the 
Federal and State authorities that must arise from the establishment ° 
of the Internal Improvement System advocated by its friends, was 
apparent, and the objections arising from that source was insuper- 
able. Pressed by the force of this argument the friends of the Road 
almost always shunned the discussion of that branch of the subject 
and insisted that the Federal Government could exercise a salutary 

“agency in the matter by appropriations of money without cessions of 
jurisdiction. This power was fully conceded by Mr. Monroe, and the 
exercise of it was sure in the end to impoverish the National Treasury 
by improvident grants to private companies and State works, and to 
corrupt Federal] legislation by the opportunities it would present for 
favoritism. I shall hereafter have occasion to speak as well of the 

part I took in this matter subsequently, as of the total and, I hope, 
final overthrow of the principle. 


°MS. I, p. 155. 


Pee et 


118 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. | — 


The subject of Piracy became prominent in the discussions of the 
Senate, and I made a speech upon it. 1 

Several Amendments of the Constitution, in regard to the election 
of President and Vice President were also offered and discussed. 
Upon one introduced by Gov. Dickerson of New Jersey, and hence 
called the New Jersey Plan, proposing to district the States, I deliv- 
ered a Speech of which I have only the preparatory notes; these may 
be found to contain suggestions of some interest and are given in* 

The wise disposition of our People to deal prudently with matters ’ 
touching the safe action of their political system in times past is — 
strikingly illustrated, in view of the inadequacy of the provisions 
of the Constitution and laws for the government of Congress in can-_ 
vassing the votes for President and Vice President, by the success 
with which they have avoided difficulties for so long a period upon a 
point in which their feelings are always so deeply excited. Appre- 
hensive of danger from. this source at the election of 1824-5, when, , 
from the number of Candidates, it was generally assumed that the 
election would come to the House, the Senate instructed its Judiciary 
Committee to consider the subject and to report thereon. After con- 
sulting with the older and more experienced Senators, I reported a 
Bill supplying omissions in the old law, which passed the Senate but 
failed in the House. As the law is still in the same imperfect State, 
and the matter may some day become one of considerable interest, the . 
notes of my Speech upon the Bill, which were furnished to me by the 
Reporter, but have never been published, are given in? 


1In the Van Buren Papers, under date of December 29, 1823. 


ea ae ee ee ee ag a ee ee we ee Sh 


CHAPTER X. 


_ The period covered by Mr. Monroe’s Administration Was made 
memorable by the canvass for the succession to which I have alluded, 
and by his efforts to bring about a fusion of Parties. 

Mr. Monroe’s character was that of an honest man, with fair, but 
not very marked capacities, who, through life, performed every 
duty that devolved upon him with scrupulous fidelity. He had 
been honorably connected with our Revolutionary Contest, and from 
the beginning of our party divisions was found in the same ranks 
with Jefferson and his friends, although, like Mr. Madison, he was, 
while perfectly sincere, yet from a difference in temperament, neither 
so earnest nor so eager in his devotion to their common cause. But 
two circumstances occurred, at early periods in his political career, 
well calculated to stir his feelings and to whet his political zeal. 

Having been appointed Minister to France by Washington he 
was recalled under circumstances implying dissatisfaction. He 
appealed to the People for his vindication in a publication of some 
length, characterized, as it has appeared to me, by great fairness. 

The second matter alluded to was as follows:—a man by the 
name of Reynolds having, on several occasions, thrown out in- 
timations that he was possessed of information that would inculpate 
criminally the administration of the Treasury Department by Alex- 
ander Hamilton, Congress appointed a Committee of Investigation 
consisting of Monroe, Venable and Leiper.* 

Knowing that the relations between himself and Reynolds would 
require explanations which it would not be agreeable to offer on 
a public investigation, Hamilton invited the Committee to an in- 
formal meeting at his own office, and there made to them a confi- 
dential communication shewing that his connection with Reynolds 


--grew out of a criminal intercourse between himself and Mrs. Rey- 


nolds, in all probability begun with the connivance of her husband, 
and ended, after the lapse of a certain time, in the pretended dis- 
covery by him, and the pecuniary extortions, under menaces of ex- 
posure, common to such cases. This statement was accompanied by 
the exhibition of a series of letters, receipts for money and other 
papers, placing its truth beyond all doubt. The Committee re- 
ported that the imputation was groundless, and the subject soon 
passed from the public mind; but a history of the United States sub- 
sequently appeared written by the well known James Thomas Cal- 


iCongress did not appoint a committee. An informal investigation was made by 
Speaker Fredk. A. Muhlenberg, James Monroe and Abraham Venable. Leiper was not 
in Congress until 1829. 
119 


1207. AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


lender, in which the charge of peculation against Gen. Hamilton 
was repeated with much solemnity. The latter sent the publica- 
tion to Mr. Monroe, and made a respectful and friendly application 
to him to be relieved, thro’ his agency, from the odium of the charge 
by a statement that would have that effect. Party spirit ran high, 
and Mr. Monroe omitted to comply with this request. This omission 
drew from Gen. Hamilton a letter that was not a challenge absolute 
or conditional in its terms, and contained no expression from which 
an intention to make it the prelude to a challenge could be positively 
assumed, but no one doubted on reading it that such was the Gen- 
eral’s ultimate expectation. This was answered by Mr. Monroe with 
a few but slight words of explanation in regard to the course he 
had adopted, and with a declaration in conclusion—from all that 
appeared in the correspondence, quite abrupt,—that if the General’s 
letter was intended to convey a demand for personal satisfaction his 
friend Col. Burr was authorized to make the necessary arrangements. 
Gen. Hamilton denied that such was the intention of his letter, but 
said, in reply, that if an invitation to the field was intended to be 
conveyed by Col. Monroe’s letter he should not decline it, and his 
friend Major Jackson was authorized to make the arrangements that 
would in that event become necessary. Mr. Monroe disclaimed such 
an intention, and the affair was terminated by a letter from Gen. 
Hamilton which concluded with a declaration that he did not regard 
the case as one calling for the resort that had been referred to. 
Gen. Hamilton, thinking that the only way to wipe off the re- 
proach that it was attempted to fasten upon his official character, 
published to the World, a complete history of the transactions, in- 
cluding all the documents submitted to the Committee, and the cor- 
respondence with Monroe, in a Pamphlet written with much feeling 
and signal ability.1. This having been done without consultation with 
his friends, they took unwearied pains to suppress the publication, 
deeming it neither necessary nor expedient. But few copies es- 
caped their efforts, and one of these was sent to me, many years ago, 
as a curiosity by an old gentleman whose antiquarian tastes led him 
to collect and preserve such things, but I have °not seen it for a long 


time, and what I have stated is from a recollection of its contents. — 


T read it at an early period of my life with great interest, and 
could not but be strongly and favorably impressed by the readiness 
with which Gen. Hamilton exposed his moral character to just cen- 
sure and the feelings of his family to the greatest annoyance, while 


1 Observations on Certain Documents contained in Nos. V and VI of The History of the 
United States for the Year 1796, in which the charge of speculation against Alexander 
Hamilton, late Secretary of the Treasury, is fully refuted. Written by himself. Phila. 
Printed for John Fenno, by John Bioren, 1797. 

° MS. I, p. 160. 


ee 


/ 


| 
| 


: 


se) me 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. Bed 74 
vindicating his official conduct from unmerited reproach. But not- 
withstanding my partiality for his personal character, and my con- 
_ fidence in his courage, I could not resist the conclusion, on reading 
the correspondence, that Colonel Monroe’s disorderly inversion of 
the regular steps of such affairs, by his bull-dog avowal of a readi- 
ness to fight before he was challenged, having divested the contest of 
its formal chivalry and dignity, induced the General to bring it to 
a different result from that which he had at first contemplated. 
Tt is not unlikely that these collisions with gentlemen at the head 
of the Federal Government, whilst they afforded a useful stimulus 
to Mr. Monroe’s partizan zeal, attracted towards him, under the 
political excitements of the periods when they occurred, a larger 
share of popular attention and led to more numerous public employ- 
ments, than, not being either a good speaker or a good writer, or 
remarkable for any striking accomplishment, he might otherwise 
have enjoyed. Having, besides, been born and reared on the red 
clay grounds of the Old Dominion, so celebrated for the production 
of Presidents, it is quite natural that he should, at an early period, 
have come to the conclusion that to be among the successors of Wash- 
ington would not. exceed his deserts. That he did not think his own 
_pretentions unreasonably postponed by the preference given to Jef- 
ferson, his senior in years and whose claims upon the confidence and 
favor of his country were incomparably superior to his own, I can 
well imagine. But it became a very different affair when the day 
arrived for the choice of Mr. Jefferson’s successor, and when the 
dwellers on the red soil could hardly believe it possible that the 
other portions of the Union would be sufficiently self-denying to 
acquiesce in any further selections from that already highly favored 
spot. It is well known that Mr. Monroe’s feelings were deeply 
‘soured by the choice of Mr. Madison for the succession thr ‘ough the 
“influence of Mr. Jefferson—not seen or heard or exerted by improper 
“means but not the less effectual. The celebrated Protest of John 
Randolph and his associates,—for a long time distinguished by the 
cognomen of “the Protesters,’—was made in the interest of Mr. 
Monroe, and long and bitter were their denunciations of the latter 
for accepting office under Mr. Madison. Jefferson and Madison, 
’ placable, just.and sincere, were doubtless desirous that their neigh- 
bour and friend with shen they had long been associated in the 
public service, and whom they respected and esteemed, should enjoy 
the same high distinction which had been conferred on themselves, 
if that could be effected without doing violence to the feelings of the 
rest of the country. But, with the exception of a single act, they 
trusted the result to the well known and oft experienced partiality of 
he Republican Party for the distinguished men of the Ancient Do- 
minion. The office of Secretary of State had become a stepping 


122 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


stone to the Presidency, so much so that Mr. Clay, at a subsequent 
period and in an unhappy moment, spoke of the selection of Presi 
dential Candidates from that station as following “ safe precedents.” 
Mr. Madison had, as has already been said, with that single hearted 
ness and high sense of justice that formed a part of his character, 
offered the place to Governor Tompkins as a proof of the estimation 
in which he held his patriotic and useful services. 

Gov. Tompkins’ declension and the consequent selection of Mr. 
Monroe, in all probability, controuled the question of the succession to 
Mr. Madison. 

I visited Washington during the session and enjoyed good oppor- 
tunities to observe the movements that were on foot. The friends of 
Clay, Lowndes, Calhoun, Cheves and others of less note evidently 
looked to their respective favorites as not yet ready for the course, 7 
but expected them to become so by the end of Mr. Monroe’s term, 
and were unwilling that the place should be pre-oceupied by one of 
their contemporaries. Crawford, also, but not so clearly, fell within 
the scope of these considerations. 

Mr. Crawford was by far the strongest of these aspirants, and 
might perhaps have been nominated, if his friends had taken open 
and unqualified ground in his favor. But they were seriously di-_ 
vided in regard to the policy of such a course. Many of them, in- 
fluenced by an apprehension that decided opposition to Mr. Monroe 
might be unsuccessful and injurious to Crawford’s future prospects, 
were disposed to leave the question to be decided by time and 
chance. 

The nomination of Gov. Tompkins for the Vice Presidency was 
generally favored, and I never understood that he expected or de- 
sired that his friends should attempt to bring him forward for the 
Presidency, nor could any efforts in that direction have been suc- 
cessful. 

Notwithstanding this inaction on the part of rivals, Mr. Monroe 
obtained only a very small majority in the Congressional Caucus; a 
result not soothing to his feelings. The Republican Party was great- 
ly in the ascendant, and Monroe and Tompkins were elected by a 
large majority. ; a 

The Party which had raised Jefferson and Madison ‘to the Presi- 
dency elected Mr. Monroe under the expectation that his Adminis- 
tration would be similar in its political aspects to those of his prede- 
cessors. The People of the United States had, during both of 
those Administrations, been divided into two and only two great 
political parties. It is not necessary and would only serve to render 
complex the views intended to be expressed to make any reference 
here to the particular character and tendency of their conflicting 


ee ee ee 
' 7 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. W235 


principles. For the present it needs only to be stated that in the ranks 
of one or the other of these parties were arrayed almost all the Peo- 
ple who took an interest in the management of public affairs. These 
differences were first developed in Congress and in Society during 
the last term of Gen. Washington’s administration, had a partial 
and comparatively silent influence in the election of his successor, 
but were openly proclaimed and maintained with much earnestness 
during that successor’s entire administration. The result of this 
conflict of opinions was the expulsion of John Adams from the office 
of President and the election of Thomas Jefferson in his place. Not 
intolerant by nature Mr. Jefferson made an ineffectual effort to allay 
the warmth of these party differences and to prevent them from in- 
yading and poisoning the personal relations of individuals. But, 
true to his trust, he not only administered the government upon the 
principles for which a majority of the People had shown their pref- 
erence, but he carried the spirit of that preference into his appoint- 
ments to office to an extent sufficient to establish the predominance of 
those principles in every branch of the public service. This he did, 
not by way of punishing obnoxious opinions, or to gratify personal 
antipathies, but to give full effect to the will of the majority, sub- 
mission to which he regarded as the vital principle of our Govern- 
ment. Mr. Madison, elected by the same Party, tho’ proverbial for 
his amiable temper and for the absence of any thing like a proscrip- 
tive disposition, pursued the same course, and upon the same prin- 
ciple—the performance of a public trust in regard to the terms of 
which there was no room for doubt. 

_ The Administrations of Jefferson and Madison, embracing a period 
of sixteen years, were, from first to last, opposed by the federal 
party with a degree of violence unsurpassed in modern times. From 
this statement one of two conclusions must result. Either the con- 
duct of these two parties which had been kept on foot so long, been 
sustained with such determined zeal and under such patriotic pro- 
fessions and had created distinctions that became the badges of 
families—transmitted ° from father to son—was a series of shame- 


less impostures, covering mere struggles for power and patronage; 
‘or there were differences of opinion and principle between them 


of the greatest character, to which their respective devotion and ac- 
tive service could not be relaxed with safety or abandoned without 
dishonor. We should, I think, be doing great injustice to our prede- 
cessors if we doubted for a moment the sincerity of those differences, or 
the honesty with which they were entertained at least by the masses 
on both sides. The majority of the People, the sovereign power 
in our Government, had again and again, and on every occasion 


° MS. I, p. 165. 


124 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


since those differences of opinion had been distinctly disclosed, de-. 


cided them in favor of the Republican creed. That creed required 
only that unity among its friends should be preserved to make 
it the ark of their political safety. The Country had been pros- 
perous and happy under its sway, and has been so through our whole 


history excepting only the period when it was convulsed and con-' 
founded by the criminal intrigues and commercial disturbances of: 


the Bank of the United States. To maintain that unity became the 
obligation of him whom its supporters had elevated to the highest 
place among its guardians. Jefferson and Madison so interpreted 
their duty. On the other hand, Mr. Monroe, at the commencement 
of his second term, took the ground openly, and maintained it 
against all remonstrances, that no difference should be made by 
the Government in the distribution of its patronage and confidence 
on account of the political opinions and course of applicants. The 
question was distinctly brought before him for decision by the 
Republican representatives from the states of Pennsylvania and 
New York, in cases that had deeply excited the feelings of their 
constituents and in which those constituents had very formally and 
* decidedly expressed their opinions. : 

If the movement grew out of a belief that an actual dissolution of 
the federal party was likely to take place or could be produced by 
the course that was adopted, it showed little acquaintance with the 
nature of Parties to suppose that a political association that had 
existed so long, that had so many traditions to appeal to its pride, 
and so many grievances, real and fancied, to ery out for redress, 
could be disbanded by means of personal fevors from the Execu- 
tive or by the connivance of any of its leaders. Such has not been 
the fate of long established political parties in any country. Their 
course may be qualified and their pretentions abated for a season 
by ill success, but the cohesive influences and innate qualities which 
originally united them remain with the mass and spring up in 
their former vigour with the return of propitious skies. Of this 
truth we need no more striking illustrations than are furnished by 
our own experience. Without going into the details of events fa- 
miliar to all, I need only say that during the very “Era of good 
feelings,” the federal party, under the names of federal republicans 
and whigs, elected their President over those old republicans Will- 
iam H. Crawford, Andrew Jackson and John C. Calhoun—have, 
since his time, twice elected old school federalists—have possessed 
the most effective portions of the power of the Federal Government 
during their respective terms, with the exception, (if it was one) of 
the politically episodical administration of Vice President Tyler— 


. 
: 
; 


i 
4 
3 


ee re eT 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 5 


and are at this time in power in the government of almost every 
free state. We shall find as a general rule that among the native 
inhabitants of each State, the politics of families who were fed- 
eralists during the War of 1812, are the same now—holding, for the 
most part, under the name of Whigs, to the political opinions and 
governed by the feelings of their ancestors. 

T have been led to take a more extended notice of this subject by 
my repugnance to a species of cant against Parties in which too many 
are apt to indulge when their own side is out of power and to forget * 
when they come in. I have not, I think, been considered even by 
opponents as particularly rancorous in my party prejudices, and 
might not perhaps have anything to apprehend from a comparison, 
in this respect, with my cotemporaries. But knowing, as all men of 
sense know, that political parties are inseparable from free govern- 
ments, and that in many and material respects they are highly useful 
to the country, I never could bring myself for party purposes to 
deprecate their existence. Doubtless excesses frequently attend them 
and produce many evils, but not so many as are prevented by the 
maintenance of their organization and vigilance. The disposition to 
abuse power, so deeply planted in the human heart, can by no other 
means be more effectually checked; and it has always therefore struck 
me as more honorable and manly and more in harmony with the 
character of our People and of our Institutions to deal with the sub- 
ject of Political Parties in a sincerer and wiser spirit—to recognize 
their necessity, to give them the credit they deserve, and to devote 
ourselves to improve and to elevate the principles and objects of our 
own and to support it ingenuously and faithfully. 

Two affairs grew out of the agitation of Mr. Monroe’s fusion 
policy which from their relation to prominent individuals and the 
developments of character they produced, may be considered of suf- 
ficient interest to be described here. 

In no state in the Union was party discipline in so palmy a condi- 
tion at this period as in New York, and a vacancy about to occur 
in the office of Post Master at Albany, the Capitol of the State, pre- 
sented to the Administration a fitting, if it was not also a desirable 
opportunity for the inauguration of the policy in regard to appoint- 
ments by which it had determined to be governed.t Van Rensselaer 
was, notwithstanding, appointed. Among the papers published at 
the time of and in connection with this affair was a letter addressed 


1It had evidently been the intention of Mr. Van Buren to give an account of the 
controversy over the appointment of Solomon Van Rensselaer to be postmaster at Albany 
in place of Solomon Southwick, removed for Gefalcation. The Federal side is well given 
in Mrs. Catharina Van Rensselaer Bonney’s ‘ Legacy of Historical Gleanings,” I, 366.— 
Ww.C.F, 


126 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


by Vice President Tompkins and myself to the Republicans at Ala 
bany, which contained the following: 4 
That you will be disappointed and mortified we can readily believe,-but we 


trust that you will not be disheartened. While there are no men in this country 
more inured to political sufferings than the Republicans of New York, there are 


none who have stronger reason to be Satisfied of the irrepressible energy of the 
Democratic party, and that no abuse of its confidence can long remain beyond 


its reach and plenary correction. 


It would have been impossible at any moment during the admin- 
istrations of Jefferson and Madison, or at any period since that of 
John Quincy Adams, to have comprehended the degree of odium 
brought upon me by this language within the precincts of the White 
House and in most of the circles, political and social, of Washington. 
| The noisy revels of bacchanalians in the Inner Sanctuary could not 
_ be more unwelcome sounds to devout worshippers than was this peal 
of the party tocsin in the ears of those who glorified the “ Era of 
Good Feeling.” 

Whilst this excitement was at its highest point I took a trip to 
Richmond, Virginia, and visited Spencer Roane whom I had never 
seen but long known, by reputation, as a hearty and bold Republican — 
of the old° School. I found him to my great regret on a bed of sick- 
ress, from which, although he lived some time, he never rose. But 
in all other respects he was the man I expected to meet—a root and 
branch Democrat, clear headed, honest hearted, and always able and 
ready to defend the right regardless of personal consequences. He 
caused his large form to be. raised in his bed, and disregarding the 
remonstrances of his family he insisted in talking with me for sev- 
eral hours. He at once referred to the Albany Post Office Question, 
told me that he had read all the papers in the case and thought that 
we were perfectly right in the grounds we had assumed. He con- 
demned in unqualified terms the course pursued by Mr. Monroe, 
spoke freely of past events in his career, and of his apprehensions 
that he would, if elected, be governed by the views he had avowed. 

Mr. Roane referred, with much earnestness, to the course of the 
Supreme Court, under the lead of Chief Justice Marshall, in under- 
mining some of the most valuable clauses of the Constitution to sup- _ 
port the pretensions of the Bank of the United States, and placed. 
in my hands a series of papers upon the subject from the Richmond 
Enquirer, written by himself over the signature of Algernon Sidney. 

On taking my leave of him I referred to the manner in which he 
had arranged the busts of Jefferson, Madison and Monroe jn his 
_ room, and said that if there had been anything of the courtier in his 
character he would have placed Mr. Monroe, he being the actual 
President, at the head instead of the foot. He replied with empha- 


° MS. I, p. 170, 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 127 


sis, “No! No! No man ranks before Tom Jefferson in my house! 
They stand Sir, in the order of my confidence and of my affection! ” 
The other matter to which I allude as an incident of the history 
of the fusion scheme, was a Pennsylvania affair. Mr. Monroe and 
his cabinet appeared to have determined to take the bull by the 
horns—a plan worthy of the strength and standing of the members 
who abetted his favorite policy. New York and Pennsylvania were | 
not only the largest and most influential states in the Union, but 
also, perhaps, the most devoted to the maintenance of existing polit- 
jcal organizations, and especially did this sentiment prevail in the 
Western Judicial District of Pennsylvania. 

If the republicans of those States could be seduced or forced into 
an acquiesence in the fusion policy, there would have been the best 
reason to anticipate its success everywhere. A vacancy occurring in 
" the office of Marshal for the Judicial District referred to presented 
a fair opportunity for a display of the Administration scheme in re- 
_ gard to appointments, parallel to that of the Albany Post Office. A 
man by the name of Irish—an out and out federalist—was one of 
‘the Candidates. His application was of course earnestly opposed 
by the republicans, and proofs of their opposition in the shape of 
protests from the members of the state Legislature and from State 
officers, from their Representatives in Congress and from private 
persons innumerable, were laid before the President, but without 
avail. Irish was nominated to the Senate and the nomination was 
confirmed. Although I happened not to have opened my lips on 
the question of the passage of this nomination in secret session, yet, 
~ as it was generally my lot to be held on such occasions justly or un- 
_ justly to some measure of responsibility, my quasi friend David B. 
Ogden circulated a report that I had made a most violent and jacob- 
' jmical speech against it, and thus disturbed the sensibilities of my 
_ personal friends among the federalists, of whom I always numbered 
"many. Mr. Ogden was a sound lawyer and possessed a vigorous 
intellect, but although an amiable man naturally, he was a violent 
politician and liable to “welcome fancies for facts” in matters hav- 
ing partizan relations. 


CHAPTER XI. 


Before I enter upon the engrossing subject at Washington, during 
Mr. Monroe’s last term, to wit, the election of his successor, I will 
give a brief account of my senatorial début. 

A Bill for the confirmation of the title of Mr. Cox of Philadelphia 
to an extensive territory in Louisiana called the Maison Rouge Tract 
was referred to our Committee. Having from unaffected timidity — 
and ° respect for the body of which I was so new a member, with- 
held myself from debate until an advanced period of the session, I 
determined to make my first appearance on the floor upon this Bill. 
To this end I gave to its merits a thorough examination, and, be- 
came satisfied that it ought not to pass. James Brown, an old and 
prominent Senator and lawyer from Louisiana, being an early and — 
warm friend of Mr. Cox, and very decidedly in favor of his claim, 
Mrs. Brown brought to the Senate Chamber several distinguished 
ladies, among whom were Mrs. Cox and Mrs. Johnston, the wife 
of his colleague, (now Mrs. Gilpin, of Philadelphia) to hear her 
husband’s speech. 

It being my business as Chairman of the Committee to open the 
matter to the Senate, and to state the objections to the Bill, I rose 
for that purpose, and very soon met with a regular “break down ”— 
as such catastrophes to young speakers are called. However strange 
it may appear in view of my previous public and professional career, 
it is nevertheless true that timidity in entering upon debate in every 
new situation in which I have been placed, and consequent embarrass- 
ment in its first stages, have been infirmities to which I have been © 
subject in every period of my life. Finding that I could not pro- 
ceed I made my retreat with as good a grace as possible and resumed 
my seat. . 

Mr. Brown was a respectable, tho’ not, in my estimation, a very 
strong man. He had been long at the bar in Louisiana, where the — 
lands in question were situated, was familiar with the Civil Law— 
which was in force there—with the laws and ordinances of the 
Colonies and the Statute laws of the State, all of which had a bear- 
ing upon the validity of this title, and was withal an easy speaker, 
plausible in his manner and much inclined to sarcasm. I can never 
forget either the triumphant air with which he threw himself into 


° MS. I, p. 176. 
128 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 129 


_ the debate, or the irritating condescension with which he explained 


_ the causes of my failure. This he did by enlarging upon the differ- 


ence in the legal systems of Louisiana and New York, particularly 


in respect to the prevalence of the Civil law, and oy obligingly 
expressing his confidence that if the question had arisen in my own 


section of the country I would doubtless have done it fuller justice— 


_ only regretting that I should have allowed myself to make up so 


confident an opinion against so valid a claim without a better 


_ understanding of its merits. He then proceeded in a long discus- 
_ sion of the points involved in the claim; but he had done more to 


prejudice the passage of the Bill in his opening remarks than his 
subsequent argument, able as it undoubtedly was, could remedy. He 
had totally extinguished the timidity by which my capacities had 
been for the moment paralyzed, and had excited in its place a glow 
of feeling and an anxiety for the reply which public speakers will 
appreciate. He soon perceived the mischief he had done, and which 


_ the vote confirmed in the rejection of the Bill by a large majority, 


altho’ it had passed the Senate at a previous session with only six 
votes against it. 

When I resumed my seat Father Macon,’ as he was called in the 
Senate, came to my place and shaking me cordially by the hand, 


_ thanked me for the service that I had rendered to the public, and 


said he had always believed the matter to be a dishonest concern. 
The Bill to confirm the title having thus failed, another was intro- 
duced, or the old one modified to make it a Bill granting leave to 
implead the United States and to try the question at law. So 
bad had the character of the claim become in consequence of this 


- discussion that it failed even in that form. It was with the Judi- 


ciary Committee an annual visitor, acted upon at almost every ses- 


sion and invariably rejected.. The Committee were at one time 


nearly or quite unanimous against it; changes in its members, per- 
sonal influence and solicitations of the worthy claimant and his 
numerous friends, and those various considerations which are often 


successfully brought to bear on the decision of Congress in regard 


to private claims, after a time brought me into a minority in the 
Committee, but not in the Senate. In the session of 1827-8, when 
I had reason to expect that my friends would taka me from the 
body, I told my friend, Mr. Seymour, of Vermont,’ a member of 
the Committee, who was in favor of the Bill and had charge of it, 
_and who had made a report in its behalf, that I had a presentiment 
"that I should die before the next session, and submitted to him the 


expediency of deferring the action of the Senate upon it until that 


period. Understanding my meaning he adopted my suggestion. 


1 Nathaniel Macon of North Carolina. 2 Horatio Seymour. 
127488 °—vo1r 2—20——-9 < 


130 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, . 


Twenty-six years have since elapsed, and the claim has been 
through that period and I learn now still is the subject of legal in- 
vestigation. “a 

The late Mr. Cox, the claimant, a worthy citizen of Philadelphia 
with some peculiarities in his disposition, retained to a very late 
period his dislike towards me on account of my persevering and ob- 
stinate opposition. I remember on one occasion meeting him on 
board of a steamboat when he was not a little amazed at my civil 
salutation, and while I was President he called at the White House 
and, in a manner somewhat confused, told me that he called to dis- 
charge what he regarded as the duty of every citizen—to pay his 
respects to the Chief Magistrate of the country. I thanked him as 
President, and added in the kindest spirit that I had allowed myself 
to hope that other feelings might have formed a part of his induce- 
ments, but that it was not for me to quarrel with his motives, so 
long as they were of so justifiable a character. This interview en- 
tirely removed the asperity of his feelings, and when I visited Phila- 
delphia after my retirement and a short time before his death, he 
evinced towards me the most cordial friendship. 

The reappointment of Mr. King did not, in its consequences, I am 
inclined to think, realize the anticipations of either ofus. It is not 
possible that any such proceeding could have been freer from pre- 
concerted arrangement or intrigue of any description. I am quite 
sure that I never exchanged a previous word with Mr. King upon 
the subject of his appointment, or that I required or received any 
assurance or intimations from his friends or from anybody else 
in regard to his political action if appointed. He was therefore 
at perfect liberty to pursue any course his conscience dictated, so 
far as we were concerned, Yet I must admit that I expected in view 
of the general condition of the country in regard to party politics, 
and the changes that had taken place in his own relations with his 
party, in consequence of the patriotic course he had pursued in re- 
spect to the War after the destruction of the Capitol, to find in him ~ 
a disposition to look with more complacency on the success of demo- 
cratic measures and democratic men than proved to be the case. 

But I did not allow this to excite in my breast any unkind feel-— 
ings towards him. He was, altho’ yet in the full possession of his 
faculties, between twenty five and thirty years my senior—had oc- 

cupied with® distinguished credit a succession of high public sta- 
- tions, and might be disposed, with good motives and friendly views, 
to turn to my advantage the stores of knowledge and experience ~ 
he had acquired. So long as the means he employed were unexcep- 
tionable and his efforts to turn my mind to conformity with his own 


ae 


PVC eiai. dO ee 1 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 131 


_ were conducted with becoming delicacy, I could not be annoyed by 
_ them—and he shewed himself incapable of acting otherwise. 

I arrived at Washington almost without a preference between the 
Candidates for the succession, save that I was strongly inclined to 
regard Mr. Adams as excluded by the political bias and opinions 
by which I thought he would be governed. Both Mr. Clay and Mr. 
Calhoun were personally more agreeable and prepossessing in their 
manners, and I regarded Mr. Crawford, from our first acquaintance, 
as an honest and true man—an opinion which I never found reason 
to change. His friends seemed more anxious to preserve the unity 
of the Republican party, and on that account I imbibed an early in- 


clination to give him the preference. But feeling that I was not 
acting for myself alone, but for many confiding friends at home, I 


deferred coming to a conclusion upon the subject until I could have 

an opportunity to advise with them during the recess. 

Mr. King and myself made our approaches to Washington, in the 
succeeding fall, very leisurely—remaining some days at Philadelphia 
and also at Baltimore. We were treated with much kindness at 
both places and spent our time very agreeably. The Presidential 

Question was introduced by him in the course of our journey, and 

discussed on his part in our daily walks, and on most occasion@ not 
_ otherwise pre-occupied, with much earnestness. He spoke hand- 

somely of Mr. Crawford and without special disparagement of either 
of the candidates, and placed his preference solely on the ground of 
the infiuence which the subject of slavery had exerted and was likely 
to exert in future on the administration of the Federal Government. 

_In the course of several conversations he spoke of the long periods 

_ during which the office of President had been held by citizens of the 
slave States and the power they had thus possessed to elevate the 

public men of their own section and to depress others, and he dis- 

cussed their claims to this preponderance—comparing the talents, 

native and acquired, of the People of the different sections, the serv- 

ices, they had respectively rendered toward the establishment of 
our independence, and the extent of their respective interests most 
affected by the action of the Federal Government. He did not re- 
gard Mr. Adams as particularly well adapted to be the leader in 
such an issue, but he was placed in a condition to make him the best 
we had; he was by no means sanguine in regard to his success—a 
question he thought of inferior importance to the opening of the 
proposed issue, which he firmly believed when once fairly started 
‘must speedily succeed. 

In the course of these protracted reasonings I acted the part of 
listener rather than that of a contestant. Respect for their source 
-and the eloquence and earnestness with which they were made 
secured from me a close and interested attention, but they did not 


132 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


make the desired impression. My opinion was very decided that 
the Southern States had dealt with the subject of slavery, down to 
that period, in a wise and liberal spirit, and that they owed the dis- 
proportionate influence which they had possessed in the Federal 
Government to other causes than to the concentration of feeling and 
effort produced by that interest. I was therefore unwilling to give 
so controlling an infiuence in the Presidential election to the con- 
siderations advanced by Mr. King, and I communicated this conclu- 
sion to him with delicacy and unfeigned respect for his character, 
and we proceeded on our journey without change in our feelings, 
much less in our social relations. 

As I acted at the time on the opinion I have mentioned, and as 
there has subsequently beén, in my judgment, a wide departure from 
the policy which then commanded my approval, which has also in 
its turn governed my action, I will here give my views of the matter 
as it then stood, leaving the consideration of the change and its 
consequences to its proper period and place. 

At the time when the oppression of the Mother-Country com- 
pelled our ancestors to resort to arms for the defence of their liber- 
ties, the condition of the old Thirteen States was not materially dif- 
ferent, in respect to the institution of Slavery, from that which ex- 
isted at the period of which we are speaking. In those where it still 
exists, it had been so deeply planted as to forbid the hope of seeing 
it eradicated except thro’ Providential means not then discoverable 
by human intelligence; whilst in those which are now free from it, it 
had obtained but a slight hold upon the interests or upon the habits 
and feelings of the inhabitants—none that would not be sure to 


yield to wise and prudent legislation. But no obstacle was found © 
to arise from the difference in their condition in respect to the ex- 
istence of slavery, to their cordial and devoted union in the struggle — 
which, by the blessing of God, resulted in the establishment of our 


national independence. 
No sooner had that great end and aim of all their secrifices and 
sufferings been accomplished than the leading men—those who 


{ 


swayed the councils of the States in which slavery existed and still | 
continues to exist, on all sides a race of great and good men—pro-— 


ceeded to the consideration of this difference in regard to slavery 
in the condition of the states, and the possible consequences which it 
might in time produce. They took up the subject with earnestness ” 
and sincerity and with a determination to deal with it justly and 
thoroughly. They foresaw that the day was not distant when slav- 
ery would have ceased to exist in a majority of the states; that its 
abolition would in all probability produce a more rapid increase in 
the population of the non-slaveholding States; that this would con- 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. _ 133 


tinue in a constantly augmenting ratio; that questions would arise 
as to the relative value of free and slave labor and as to the degree 
of encouragement to which each was entitled, and they apprehended 
that these might lead to invectives against the institution of slavery, 
which the changed condition of States would naturally increase, and 
that in this way the subject itself would come to be regarded as one | 
of political power, creating sectional parties and in the end over- 
throwing the glorious fabric which had been raised by the joint 
labors of all, if these sad results were not prevented by timely and 
comprehensive measures. 

They did not apprehend a disposition on the part of their North- 
ern and Eastern brethren to disturb the domestic peace of the States 
in which slavery had long and fixedly existed, by interference with 
the subject within their borders. This would have been a desecration 
of the fraternal spirit of the Revolution so gross that their pure 
breasts could not harbor a suspicion of it. They never doubted that 
ample Constitutional protection for the possession and use of this 
portion of their property would be secured to them, and that was all 
that they required. 

The spread of slavery and the increase of slave States was the 
source and the only source from which trouble was apprehended. 

The advance of liberty—the sign under which they had fought and 
by which they conquered—and the growth and maintenance of free 
institutions were the objects of that Revolution from which they had 
just emerged. The existence and continuance of slavery in so many 
of the States was a sad qualification of these noble aims and glorious 
results—but it was impossible, positively and abolutely impossible to 
avoid it, and its existence was without fault on the part of those who 
had inherited it from ancestors many of whom were as little respon- 
sible for its creation. 

Shall the exceptional feature in the free system about to be organ- 
ized be enlarged? Shall the influence and action of the Federal 
Government be employed for the multiplication of slave States, or 
to discourage their increase? 

These were the questions that presented themselves to all patri- 
otic and thinking minds before and at the period of the adoption 
of the Constitution; and it is an historical truth, worthy of all 
honor, that the great preponderance of opinion on the part of all 
that was imposing in character and venerable in authority in what 
are still the Slave States was in favor of a course most in harmony 
with the principles of the Revolution—that of discountenancing the 
increase of Slave States. Such men as George Washington, 
Thomas Jefferson, Patrick® Henry, George Mason, James Madison 


° MS. I, p. 185. 


134 . AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


and other patriotic citizens did not hesitate to express their repug- 
nance to slavery, their regrets at its existence, their desire to see 
it lessened and abolished, if possible, by proper means, and not 
only their unwillingness to contribute to its extension, but their 


readiness to co-operate in proper measures to limit its farther ’ 


. spread by the increase of free states. : 

They were wise and experienced men and knew that such a sub- 
ject could not be trusted to professions or acts which would be open 
to different constructions, and could only be safely dealt with by 
such measures as must carry conviction to the most prejudiced minds 
because they went directly to the accomplishment of their object. 

From such considerations and from such sources issued the Act 
of July 1787 for the government of the North Western Territory. 
By this Memorable Act its author and supporters intended not only 
to provide effectually for the peace and safety of their beloved 


country, but to repel, as far as was in their power, the suspicion of 


their fidelity to the cause of freedom which their enemies had at- 
tempted to fix upon them. Whether we regard the source from 
which it originated, the support it received on its passage, or its 
efficiency in promoting the great object of its enactment, this Law 
deserves a place in our National Archives side by side with the 
Declaration of Independence and the Federal Constitution. At- 
tempts have been made to deprive Mr. Jefferson of the eredit of 
this great measure, as there have been cavillers against every truth 
of history however firmly established. Nothing can be more certain 
than that it was to his master mind that the country is indebted 
for its conception, and to his perseverance in its support seconded 
by the Legislature of Virginia and the old Congress for its com- 
pletion. “1 

By its provisions the North Western Territory which was, in the 
hands of Virginia, slave territory, was set apart for the creation of 
six new states—the precise number of the slave states then, to all ap- 
pearance, destined to remain such—and it was made an irrevocable 
condition of the cession that slavery should never be tolerated within 
their boundaries. The Executive and Legislative Departments of the 
State of Virginia, and the prominent men of the State, of all parties, 
lent their aid to promote the measure and it passed the old Congress 
by the unanimous vote of the Representatives from the slave-holding 
states. Its adaptation to exigencies of the occasion to the promo- 
tion of the policy of which I have spoken are too obvious to require a 
single remark. It embraced all the vacant territory of the United 
States which was at all likely to be converted into Slave States and 
promised to balance the influence of the irredeemable slave holding 
states in the Federal Councils—leaving the progress of Emancipation 


—— ee 


Tew Te 


ae Te 


- 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 135 


in the Middle and Northern States to work out a preponderance of 
free states qualified, to a limited extent, by the new states that might 
be made out of vacant territories still belonging to the States of 
North Carolina and Georgia by divisions of those states. 

The Act was passed but a short time previous to the meeting of the 
Convention * which framed the Federal Constitution and its patriotic 
promoters were not disappointed in the character and extent of the 
influence which a measure so wise and liberal was destined to exert 
upon the other members of the Confederacy. They found them ready 
to secure the citizens of the Southern States in the full enjoyment of 
the rights they claimed as slave holders by adequate constitutional 
guarantees and the Southern members of the Convention reciprocated 
that disposition by their significant consent that the word slavery 
should not be used in the Constitution, and with the exception of the 
members from South Carolina and Georgia they insisted that the 
Slave trade should be forthwith abolished. The prolongation of the 
period for its suppression was, it is well known, the consideration 
given, in pursuance of an arrangement between the members last men- 
tioned and some of our Eastern brethren, for the right in Congress 
to pass Navigation Acts. 

The six new States provided for by the ordinance of 1787 have 
all been admitted into the Union as free States, according to its 
provisions, and have now a representation in the U. S. Senate exactly 


equal to that of the six Slave States of the old Confederacy and a 


7 oe 


eee a 


ae 


representation in the House of Representatives of members to 
—— members, the present representation of the latter. As late as 
the year 1809, the territory of Indiana, under a momentary delusion 
in regard to her best interests, applied to Congress for temporary 
relief from the prohibition of the Ordinance against slavery. The 
petition was referred to a Committee of which John Randolph, dis- 
tinguished for his devotion to Southern rights, interests and feelings, 
was Chairman, reported against promptly and firmly and the report 
acquiesced in with perfect unanimity by his Southern associates. 
Add to all this the Declaratory Act of Congress by which the Slave 
trade was declared Piracy, in the passage of which Southern men 
took the most prominent part, and we have a series of Acts all 
showing the absence of anything like a desire to advance their 
political power by the spread of Slavery or the increase of Slave 
States. 

What subsequent steps have been taken bearing upon the relative 
powers of the slave and free states, before the agitation of the 
Missouri Question, and how far do they afford evidence of a different 
design! 


1Van Buren confused the adoption of the Constitution by the Convention, September 


17, 1787, with the date of convening which was May 14. 


136 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 


Tennessee had been cut off from North Carolina—made a State 
and admitted into the Union as had been the case with Vermont and 
Maine taken from the states of New York and Massachusetts. Geor- 
gia had ceded her vacant lands to the Federal Government for a 
stipulation to be relieved from the occupation of certain Indian 
tribes, out of which lands the states of Alabama and Mississippi had 
been carved. The Floridas and Louisiana had been purchased, and 
the state of Louisiana had been admitted into the Union. "These 
were all proceedings, except the purchase, anticipated by the acts 
of the Government, and neither they nor the purchase last men- 
tioned afforded indications of a design to increase, or exclusively 
aggrandize the slave interest or power, nor were they at the periods 
when they occurred, to my knowledge, objected to on that ground. 
It may have been otherwise in respect to Louisiana, on the part of 
some of our Hastern people, but their objections were not very ear- 
nestly insisted on. These purchases were not in contemplation when 
the Ordinance of 1787 was passed. The settlement of the Valley of 
the Mississippi made the acquisition of the Mouths of that River 
a state necessity which could not be disregarded or much longer 
delayed without hazarding the peace of the Country or the sta- 
bility of the Union. The admission of Louisiana as a slave state 
necessarily resulted from the stipulations in favor of the inhabi- 
tants which the treaty unavoidably contained. I firmly believe that 
if Mr. Jefferson had thought it practicable to acquire the territory 
and to obtain its admission as a State without such stipulations, he 
would have made the attempt. His whole course upon the subject 
of slavery warrants this opinion. If the existence of slavery in the 
state was an insuperable objection with the Northern states they 
had only to withhold their assent from the treaty and the whole 


proceeding would have fallen to the ground. But the paramount | 


necessity for the purchase banished that consideration from their 
minds, if it existed there to any considerable extent—which in the 
then state of public feeling upon the subject is not very probable. 
The territory was too large for a single state, and a portion of it 
comparatively thinly settled, but by a congenial population, was set 
off as a separate Territory by the name of Missouri. Hight years 
afterwards the latter applied to be admitted as a state, having in 
the mean time acquired a sufficient number of inhabitants. Having 
grown up as a slave territory under the territorial laws, and her 
people being then, for the most part, slaveholders, Missouri claimed 
to be admitted as a Slave State and had framed her Constitution ac- 
cordingly. On that ground—that is because her constitution recog- 
nized and sanctioned the existence of slavery within her borders— 
her admission into the Union as a state was opposed by large por- 


2 


; 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 137 


tions of the Northern people. This opposition they had the right to 
make. Thinking that it would be for the interest of the new State 
that she should be free, and thinking also that from the smallness 
of her population, and the limited number of slaves within the terri- 
tory—even now not large—the State would find not more difficulty 
in relieving itself from the existence of slavery than many of the 
Northern states had experienced, they had a right to press those 
considerations upon® the applicant by all fair and proper means. 
‘If the unbiased opinion of Missouri could now be obtained I should 
not be surprised to find it one of regret that she had not yielded to 
that opposition and made herself a non-slave holding state. 

The opposition that was made to the admission of Missouri takes 
its character from the motives by which it was actuated and the 
manner in which it was conducted. That opposition was unexcep- 
tionable where it arose from an honest conviction that the pre- 
vious abolition of slavery within her territory would be advan- 
tageous to her, and that the admission of more slave states into the 
Union would be adverse to its welfare, and where no improper means 
were employed to carry out these views; but where it was, on the 
contrary, the fruit of an outside policy—where the principal design 
was to produce political and partisan effect by seizing on the ques- 
tion as an opportunity to bring the politics of the slave states and 
the standing of their supporters in the free states into disrepute 
through inflammatory assaults upon the institution of slavery, which 
we are under constitutional obligations to respect in the states where 
it exists,—the opposition was culpably factious. Disguise the mat- 
ter as we may such agitation must, in the light of reason and jus- 
tice, be regarded as alike offensive to the spirit and derogatory to 
the memories of the Revolution. If our participation in the pro- 
tection which the Federal Constitution extends to the institution 
of slavery had become intolerable to us, and we had satisfied our- 
selves that the interests of humanity would gain more by our re- 
lease from that obligation than they would lose by a dissolution of 
the Union, there was one way in which we could obtain an honorable 
discharge and that was by tendering to our brethren of the slave 
holding states a peaceable and voluntary dissolution of that Union 
which our Ancestors had formed with them under a different state 
of feeling. To hold on to its advantages and at the same time to 
lessen if not destroy through the agency of such agitations, that se- 
curity to their slave property which was one of the principal bene- 
fits promised to them by its adoption, was the reverse of such a 
course. 


° MS. I, p. 190. 


138 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


From all that I saw of it I could not divest my mind that such 
was the intention of the movement against the admission of Mis- 
souri on the part of its leaders. I thought so then—I think so 


still. I feel less embarrassed in speaking of it thus freely because ~ : 


I have always admitted my share of the responsibility so far as 
the New York Resolutions went—but no farther. Although I did 
not actually vote for them I allowed myself to be prevented by po- 


litical and partisan considerations, which have been heretofore al- 


luded to, from meeting them by open opposition. 

While it affords me no satisfaction to say this I would the more 
regret the necessity of this sacrifice to the truth of history if I 
did not also know that at a later period and at a critical period, too, 
for the South the Northern States stepped forward and screened 
her from the assaults of the abolitionists in a manner and to an 
extent that called forth the strongest expressions of approbation 
and thankfulness from the Slave States, with acknowledgment that 
more could not have been done or desired. What return has been 
made for this conduct on our part will be seen in the sequel. All I 
wish is that the simple truth of these matters should be told. 

In confirmation of the statement of my own feelings at the time 
of the Missouri agitation, I now for the first time publish two letters 
written at that period; one addressed to William A.” Duer, recently 
President of Columbia College——(The letter to Mr. Duer has been 
mislaid.) a zealous and active friend of Mr. King and of his ap- 
pointment as Senator—and the other to Major M. M. Noah, at the 
time Editor of the National Advocate in the city of New York. The 
occasion of the latter epistle and certain circumstances in its history 
have been heretofore related.* 


Letter To M. M. Noau, HEsqr. 


“Hupson Dee. 17, 1819. 

D* Sm 

Your letter has reached me here in the midst of a Circuit and I have but 
time to say a word to you on the interesting points you speak of. Advise 
Thompson by no means to have such a meeting—it would as you say set an 
example for Mr. Clinton for which he would give the world. The dire necessity 
to which he will be subjected of resorting to such nominations galls him to the 
quick. Such a measure would therefore be intolerable in us, and I am aston- 
ished that any discreet man should dream of it. Make yourself perfectly easy 
on the subject of the nomination. If such designs as you speak of exist they 
are perfectly harmless. There is the most unprecedented unanimity on the sub- 
ject among Republicans. Tompkins will be the man unless he himself declines. 


Let the few individuals who entertain different views talk on, but don’t notice | 


them in your paper. They will soon be lost in the general mass. I should 


sorely regret to find any flagging the subject of Mr. King in New York. We — 


1 Page 101 of the Autobiography. 


7 


: 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 139 


are committed to his support. It is both wise and honest, and We must have no 
fluttering in our course. The Republicans of the State expect it and are ready 
for it. I know that such is the case. There was not in the Senate a dissenting 
voice that I could find. Mr. King’s views towards us are honorable and cor- 
rect. The Missouri Question conceals so far as he is concerned no plot, and we 
shall give it a true direction. You know what the feelings and views of our 
friends were when I left New York, and you know what we then concluded to 
do. My Considerations* &c and the aspect of the Argus will shew you that we 
have entered on the work in earnest. We cannot therefore look back. Our 
fair, consistent and manly course has raised our party in the estimation of all, 
and its contrast with that of our opponents has cast much contempt on theirs. 
Let us not therefore have ary halting, but come out I beseech you manfully on 
the subject and I will put my head on its propriety.” * * #* 

At the time of my conversation with Mr. King, the Missouri 
Question had been settled—most of the Candidates were slave-hold- 
ers, and there was scarcely a ripple on the political waters produced 
by slavery agitation. 

It was not surprising that Mr. King and myself should differ upon 
this point as we viewed it from opposite positions. Although not in 
the Country during the administration of the elder Adams and per- 
haps not approving of all its measures, he nevertheless sympathized 
with its conductors and had through life been the political friend 
and associate of its principal’supporters. He had regarded its over- 
throw and the election of Mr. Jefferson as national misfortunes. He 
had been in opposition—respectful indeed but not the less decided— 
to the administrations of Jefferson and Madison during the sixteen 


a years of their continuance, with the exception of the support he gave 


Pt ee) ei 
a F 


; 
ec 


to the War after the sacking of Washington. With his politica] feel- 
ings moderated by time and circumstances, he was still, as I found 
upon a nearer approach, on all essential points, the same old fash- 
ioned federalist that he had been from the start. Under a bias so 
potent he was wholly unwilling to allow, indeed incapable of believ- 
ing that the lodgment which Jefferson’s political principles had ac- 
quired and was likely to maintain in the minds of the People, in 
preference to those of his own school, was well deserved on public 


_ grounds, and he was ready to attribute it to the unanimity of the 


F 


id 


slave states caused by the slave interest or by the “ black strap” as 
he called it. His feelings against the institution as a philanthropist 
were thus stimulated by the prejudices of the politician, and he was 
by their combined influence induced to embark with so much earnest- 
ness in the Missouri agitation. 

° My feelings were of a very different character. My earliest 
political recollections were those of the day when I exulted at the 


1 Considerations in fayor of the appointment of Rufus King—a pamphlet of 32 pp. 


_ (Dec., 1819). A copy is in the Toner Collection, Library of Congress. See the long 


extracts published in Holland’s Life of Van Buren (Hartford, 1836), p. 129. 
° MS. I, p. 195. 


140 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


election of Mr. Jefferson, as the triumph of a good cause over an 
Administration and Party, who were as I thought subverting the 
principles upon which the Revolution was founded and fastening 
upon the Country a system which tho’ different in form was neverthe- 
less animated by a policy in the acquisition and use of political power 
akin to that which our ancestors had overthrown. I had ever since 
regarded the continued success of Mr. Jefferson’s policy as the result 
of the superiority of the principles he introduced into the adminis- 
tration of the Government over those of his predecessor, and was sin- 
cerely desirous that they should continue to prevail in the Federal 
Councils. I had not, as I have before stated, sympathized in the Mis- 
souri Agitation because I could not conceal from myself the fact, to 
which all we saw and heard bore testimony, that its moving springs 
were rather political than philanthropical, and because I thought 
nothing had arisen that would justify us in making the subject of 
slavery a matter of political controversy. 

These conflicting views, coloring all our conversations, soon con- 
vinced us of the parts we were to take in the Presidential election. 
I announced by intention to support Mr. Crawford soon after my 
arrival at Washington, and Mr. King was, from the beginning, the 
known friend of Mr. Adams. But this difference did not then pro- 


duce the slightest effect upon our social or friendly relations. We 


messed together during the session, and notwithstanding the dis- 


parity in our years, which was still greater between some others of — 


our associates and himself, our social intercourse was not only unem- 


barrassed, but so genial and entertaining as to have kept a pleasant’ 


and lasting place In my memory. 
A circumstance occurred in the succeeding recess affecting me per- 
sonally that served to draw forth his friendly regard. Chief Jus- 


tice Thompson, having been transferred to the Navy Department,’ — 


disposed to testify his sense of the intimate relations that so long 
existed between us, inquired of me by letter whether I would accept 


the office of Judge on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United 


States, to supply the vacancy caused by the death of Brockholst Liv- 
ingston. My impression, upon receiving the letter, was decidedly 
against the acceptance of the offer, but on mentioning the subject to 
Mr. King he took very earnest ground in favor of my accepting it, 
and begged me not to decline, as it was my intention to do imme- 
diately, until we could give the subject a fuller consideration. At 
subsequent interviews he prevailed upon me to consent to the ap- 
pointment. Having felt myself called upon to oppose an Act of 
Mr. Monroe’s administration in regard to an appointment in which 
a large portion of my constituents was interested, I informed the 


1 Smith Thompson transferred in April, 1823. 


a 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 141 


Secretary that if the President was disposed to confer the office upon 
me I would accept it, but I was desirous that it should be understood 
as having been done exclusively on public grounds, as I had no desire 
for the position and could not consent to be regarded as an appli- 
cant for it. Mr. King wrote of his own accord to Mr. Adams, who 
took a friendly part in the matter. 

From some source* which I never perfectly understood obstacles 
were thrown in the way of the appointment and considerable delay 
intervened. An expression in one of the Secretary’s letters induced 
me to repeat my request that in whatever he said or did in the mat- 
ter, I relied upon his friendship to prevent me from appearing be- 
fore the President as an applicant for the office. After a while I 
received a letter from him asking me whether, after what had hap- 
pened between us, I thought he could with propriety take the office 
himself. Mr. King had taken much interest in the subject and was 
much displeased with the conduct of Secretary Thompson. He 
thought I ought to leave him to his own course; but feeling best sat- 
isfied with an avoidance of the appointment, I wrote to him at once 
absolving him from any obligation to myself and advising him to 
take the place, for which, by the way, he was as eminently qualified 
as he was unfit for politica] life. 

Now, altho’ I was very sensible that one inducement with Mr. 
King, on this occasion, was a willingness to withdraw me from the 
Presidential canvass, I was yet perfectly satisfied that he sincerely 
thought the appointment a desirable one, and that it could not be 
otherwise than beneficial to me to accept it. I was not therefore dis- 
posed to undervalue the zealous and friendly part that he took in 
the matter, because his success would favor other objects in which 
he felt an interest and which he was quite justifiable in seeking to 
advance by such means. 


aQn referring to my correspondence with Secretary Thompson, to which I could not 
have aceess when the above was written, I find that, previously to the offer of his in- 
fluence in obtaining the Judgeship for me, he had solicited in his straight forward way 
my support of himself for the Presidency, and had become not a little impatient of my 
silence. This circumstance, which, from the slight impression that it made on me, had 
altogether escaped from my memory, may throw some light upon the course and dis- 
position of the judicial appointment after it was ascertained that my inclinations in 
regard to the Presidential Question were not in that direction. I cannot say that I 
have at this moment any decided opinion as to the source from whence the obstacles 
arose which prevented my appointment. The correspondence which accompanies thi§ 
Memoir will be found to possess interest from the light it throws upon the ways of men 
and of several distinguished individuals in particular. I have myself fancied on read- 
ing it now that I could discover traces of views and feelings on the part of others 
which from the unsuspicious character of my mind did not occur to me at the time. 


CHAPTER XII. 

° My notice of the Presidential election of 1824-5 will be confined 
mainly to the State of New York. An unforeseen occurrence gave 
the principal part of her electoral vote to Mr. Adams, and an acci- 
dental circumstance, bearing upon that vote, turned the question 
finally in his favor in the House of Representatives. 

By the law of the State, passed at a very early period, the Electors 
of President and Vice President were directed to be appointed by 
the Legislature. The election of members of the latter body in 1823 
was held with direct reference to the Presidential question and re- 
sulted in the choice of a very decided majority supposed to be and 
which was, at the time, favorable to the election of William H. 
Crawford. The friends of the other Candidates, recognizing their 
defeat, demanded a second trial. A transaction something like this 
pecarted in 1800—the object being to defeat Mr. Jefferson. After 
a Legislature had been chosen known to be favorable to him an ap- 
plication was made to Gov. Jay (as appears from his Life, by his 
son,) by a prominent federalist, to call the old legislature, whose time 


had not expired, to choose the Presidential electors, which Mr. Jay 


very properly refused to entertain. 

The movement now made was of a far more plausible character. 
It was demanded that the Electors should be chosen by the People, in- 
stead of being appointed by the Legislature, as had been the pre- 
vious usage and as the existing law directed. The unreasonableness 
of this demand under the circumstances was apparent, but its rejec- 
tion was nevertheless a matter of great delicacy. It was an awkward 
affair for a party which prided itself on being most in favor of em- 
ploying the direct agency of the People in the conduct of public 
affairs, to refuse such an application when there was yet time enough 
to accede to it and to carry it into effect. It seemed, at least, in thus 
refusing, to place itself in a false position. Our opponents pressed 
this view of the subject with much earnestness and considerable 
influence, But I have never doubted that we would have been able 
to sustain ourselves before the country if it had not been for a very 
foes et badly advised step taken by our friends at the mo- 


° MS. Book II, p. 1, 
142 


ae 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN..~ 143 


ment when the Legislature adjourned to the Extra-session for the 
_ choice of electors. 

Gov. Clinton had listened to the advice of his friends and had 
avowed his determination not to be a candidate for re-election—his 
chanee of success being regarded by them as hopeless. He did not 
lack troops of devoted personal adherents, but his failure to main- 
tain his position in the favor of the People, under the auspicious 
circumstances which had attended his public service, even when 
strengthened by the complete success of the Erie Canal—a measure 
to which his name was so closely and meritoriously linked—induced 
_ them to think that he did not possess the faculty of making himself 
generally and permanently acceptable to the People under any state 
of affairs. They had therefore employed themselves in looking for 
an office or employment for him which would be adequate for his 
support, of sufficient dignity and independent of the popular vote. 
He had confessedly done more than any other man to secure the suc- 
cess of the great Public Work to which I have referred. The office 
_ of President of the Canal Board which had been conferred on him 
at an early day had no salary attached to it nor did he receive any 
_ compensation for his services. Having the best right to be regarded 
as the founder of the Work, that post as a mark of distinction only, 
_ without reference to his usefulness in the performance of its duties, 
was justly due to him. 

Such being the state of things Mr. Clinton was removed by a vote 
of the Legislature, on the last day of the session,’ without notice or 
specific complaint. 

Tt has been truly said that this removal “operated like an elec- 
tric shock upon the whole community.” It secured to Mr. Clinton 
a full measure of what he had never before possessed—the sympa- 
thies of the People. The friends of Mr. Adams, generally, in the 
_ Legislature and their leaders Wheaton and Tallmadge? voted for the 
removal, but we had the majority—the motion came from our side— 
and ours was the responsibility. 

A public meeting was forthwith held at the Capitol, at which the 
measure was severely denounced. Similar meetings followed in 
every part of the State, and an excitement in the public mind was 
produced which disinclined it to receive dispassionately the ex- 
planations of our conduct in refusing to pass the electoral law. Our 
excuses for declining to fight a battle over again that we had once 
fairly won, which, but for this disturbing question would have been 
favorably heard by the majority, would not be listened to by an 
irritated community. 


1 April 12, 1824.—W. C, F. 2 Henry Wheaton and James Tallmadge. 


144 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


Mr. Clinton’s re-election to the office of Governor was the redress 
that instantaneously presented itself to the minds of the masses. 
The people’s party”—a temporary faction generated by the re- 
fusal of our friends to pass the Electoral law and most of whose mem- 
bers in the Législature had voted for his removal—could not pre- 
vent his nomination at a State Convention in the call of which they 
had united. The current of public feeling, overwhelmingly in his 
favor, carried him in by the largest majority ever given in the 
state. So violent was the excitement that when I, to whom the 
removal had occasioned much regret and who had no knowledge, 
being in Washington, of the intention to make it, made my appear- 
ance at the polls the shout of “ Regency! Regency!” was raised by 
the crowd and my vote was challenged by some dozen persons. The 
efforts sincerely made by the Board of Inspectors and by some of 
Mr. Clinton’s most attached friends to get the challenge withdrawn 
were ineffectual, and I was obliged to take the prescribed oath. The 
first returns from the Western Counties were astounding, but at a 
meeting of a few friends, held at my lodgings, we canvassed the 
State and still claimed success. On the followimg morning, how- 
ever, my excellent friend Judge Roger Skinner came into my room 
and furnished me with returns shewing that we had been, as I have 
stated, completely routed. 

A feeling of bitter personal hostility towards Gov. Clinton— 
foreign to his generous nature, but for which he thought he had 
adequate grounds—had made Judge Skinner more instrumental in 
accomplishing the removal of Mr. Clinton than any other of our 
friends. Knowing that if informed of the design I would have 
done what I could to prevent it, he took especial pains to keep -it 
from me and laughed at the apprehensions I expressed on being in- 
formed of the act. He was standing at the window, tapping the 
glass with his fingers, whilst I was taking my breakfast with what 
° appetite his news had left me. I could not resist saying to him— 
“T hope, Judge, you are now satisfied that there is such a thing 
in politics as killing a man too dead!” an observation sufficiently 
absurd to the general ear, but full of significance and matter for 
painful reflection to him. He left the room immediately without 
saying a word. Conscious that I had wounded him deeply I fol- 
lowed him to his lodgings, begged his forgiveness with perfect 
sincerity and succeeded in obtaining it. But nothing could soothe 
the pang inflicted on his heart by Mr. Clinton’s suecess and by 
the conviction that he had contributed to it. His health, always 
delicate, gave way, and he died not long after in my arms. He was 
among the worthiest and most valued of my friends, and I long 


_ © MS. IL, p. 5. 


( ' 


pares 
‘ f . 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 145 


and deeply mourned his loss. He was the second person whose death 
was obviously hastened by grief and mortification at Mr. Clinton’s 
success. The other was Judge? Crosby, Senator from Westchester 
County, of whom I have already spoken in connection with Mr. Clin- 
ton’s nomination three years before. 

To those familiar with the action of public bodies under the in- 
fluence of panic it cannot be necessary to enlarge upon the injuri- 
ous effects produced by these election results, received at the time 
that the Legislature was in session for the sole purpose of appoint- 
ing Presidential Electors. Gen. Peter B. Porter, a sagacious man, 
well versed in political management and, tho’ never popular himself, 
very capable of influencing others, was at the head of Mr. Clay’s 
friends. His ablest associate and co-worker was John Cramer, a 
veteran politician, who had been one of the Electors at Mr. Jefferson’s 
second election, had almost ever since been in public life, lived on 
political intrigue, and having been familiar with legislative corrup- 
tions was consequently well acquainted with the worst portion of the 
members and the ways by which they might be operated upon. Fol- 
lowing the example of their Principal their first step was to prevent 
a Caucus, in which, if its decision was adhered to, we would have 
been entirely safe. In this step they would not have succeeded but 
for the fact that the election had deprived us of the prestige which 
the long possession of power had given us. They coalesced with the 
friends of Mr. Adams, and this union enabled them to hold out rea- 
sonable expectations of a share in the favors of the new Government 
to members friendly to Mr. Crawford. The two sections made a 
regular bargain for the division of the Electoral ticket and succeeded, 
but so close was the vote that only thirty-two electors out of thirty- 
six were chosen on the first ballot. On the second ballot four of our 
ticket were elected, by which result Mr. Clay was excluded from the 
House of Representatives and Mr. Crawford’s name was returned 
to it as one of the three highest. 

We had formed our ticket upon a principle that brought on it 
several of Mr, Clay’s supporters, equal in number to the share they 
were to have under their arrangement with the friends of Mr. Adams, 
and four of these were lost. Although I did not suspect it at the 
time, I had reason subsequently to believe that these were intention- 
ally lost from a desire on the part of the Adams men to exclude Mr. 
Clay from the House. 

Our Governor in office, Judge Yates, and our new candidate for 
that station at the election, Col, Young,—two very honest men but 
impracticable politicians—did each their part in breaking down the 


1 Darius Crosby. 


127483°—vort 2—20-——10 


146 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


party by which the one had been and the other hoped to be elected. 

I have already alluded to the unfounded prejudices in regard to 
myself which had unhappily been created in the breast of the former. 
These were not removed in the Recess, and I left home for Washington 
in December, 1823, in the full belief that we were destined to en- 


counter his opposition upon the Presidential question in the shape 


of the recommendation, in his second Message (January 1824) to 
alter the mode of appointing electors,’ and I remained under that 
impression until I heard that document read under the following 
circumstances. 

My colleague, Mr. King, resting confidently upon the almost uni- 
versal impression that such must be its character, manifested more 
curiosity for its arrival than I either shewed or felt. It was brought 
to us at the close of our mess dinner at which were present our 
mutual friends Gen. Stephen Van Rensselaer, Messrs. Andrew Steven- 
son, Louis McLane & others. Mr. King immediately proposed that 
it should be read aloud, and Mr. Stevenson was, I think, designated 
as the reader. Mr. King folded his handkerchief on the table before 
him and resting his arms upon it, as was his habit, his complacent 
countenance indicated the confidence and satisfaction with which he 
prepared himself to hear the welcome tidings. The ordinary topics 
of the Message were run over hurriedly until the reader came to the 
‘interesting subject of the choice of electors, when, to the amazement 
of all, we were favored with a string of generalities studiedly am- 
biguous, but susceptible of only one interpretation which was that in 
his Excellency’s opinion it would be better to leave the law as it 


a 
1The paragraph in the Governor’s message read as follows: 

“The choice of electors of president and vice-president, has excited much animadver- 
sion throughout the nation; and it is to be regretted, that a uniform rule on this sub- 
ject is not prescribed by the constitution of the United States. It is manifest, that 
the manner of electing may have an essential effect on the power and influence of a 
state, with regard to the presidential question, by either dividing the votes, or enabling 
the state with greater certainty to give an united vote; and until a uniform rule is in- 
grafted in the constitution of the United States, the manner of electing will continue to 
fluctuate, and no alteration made by any one state will produce a material change in 
the various modes now existing throughout the union. In some states the people will 
vote by a general ticket; in some by districts, and in others by the legislature; and no 
practical remedy probably does exist, competent to remove the evil effectually, except by 
an amendment to the national constitution. 

“Although this state has heretofore sanctioned an attempt to accomplish that im- 
portant object, which proved unsuccessful, the measure on that account should not be 


abandoned; and as the subject has recently been brought before congress, it is to be 


expected that another opportunity will shortly be presented for the legislature of this 


state to sanction an amendment, not only establishing a uniform rule in the choice of | 


electors, but also securing the desirable object of directing such choice to be made by 
the people. A more propitious period of evincing its propriety and consequently afford- 
ing a more favorable prospect of obtaining a constitutional number of the states to 
assent to it I am inclined to think has not presented itself since the organization of 
the government. Persuaded that you as the representatives of a free people, will only 
be influenced by reason and true patriotism, it is submitted to your wisdom and dis- 
cretion, whether, under existing circumstances, the present manner of choosing electors 
ought, at this time, to be changed.” —W, C, F, 


ae. "I aa 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 147 


stood. A lowering frown chased the smiles from Mr. King’s face, 
_ and being observed by all produced an unpleasant pause, interrupted 
by himself when, turning to me, he said “I think, Mr. Van Buren, 
that Mr. Crawford’s friends ought to send the Governor a drawing 
of the Vice President’s Chair.” I asked for his reason. “ Because” 
said he, “I presume they have promised its possession to him.” I 
_ replied with some feeling, but respectfully, that I could not of course 
_ say what had been promised him by the friends of the other candi- 
_ dates, but that I was quite sure that Mr. Crawford’s friends had 

held out to him no allurements. “TI hope so!” on his part. and “I 
know so!” on mine followed in rapid succession, when he picked up 

his handkerchief and walked out of the room. Mr. King was en- 
_ titled to credit for his government of 2 naturally warm temper. We 
saw no more of him that evening nor did he come to the breakfast 
table in the morning, but at night following he pressed me to ac- 
company him to a party given by the French Minister, which I did. 
On our way he said what was proper in regard to the unpleasant 
occurrence of the day before, and at the party he shamed my un- 
prompt gallantry by dropping on his Imee, in my presence, to retie 
her loosened shoe-string for a very interesting young lady—the grand 
_ daughter of Mr. Jefferson and my warm friend—a duty that his 
greater age should have devolved upon me. 

How Gov. Yates’ mind had reached a conclusion so unexpected 
_ by all of us I never ascertained. He lost a renomination and before 
I left Washington I had the mortification to see his proclamation 
ealling an extra session of the Legislature in August to reconsider 
the subject of the Electoral law.t_ This served to increase the agita- 
tion in the public mind caused by Mr. Clinton’s removai but gave 
us little farther trouble, our majority not having then been disturbed 
as it was afterwards by the tornado of Mr. Clinton’s election. I 
_ wrote a communication for the Argus to shew the impropriety of the 
_ eall, and our friends in the Legislature, on the motion of Mr.? Flagg, 
; fesolvad that nothing had arisen in the Recess to justify the call under 
the Constitution and adjourned. 


*In April, 1824, in caucus Yates received only 45 votes and Young 60. The un- 
popularity of Yates was said to have been due to his opposition to an electoral law. 
Hammond writes (II. 166): ‘‘He pursuaded himself that the party in favor of that 
_Measure, which he knew was composed as well of the Clintonians as the people’s men, 
Were so much divided in opinion about the selection of a gubernatorial candidate, 
hat if he were to place himself in an attitude which would enable them with any 
decent regard to consistency to support him as their candidate, in all probability they 
would do so; or if in this view of the case he was mistaken—if he was to come out 
publicly in favor of the measure which had recently excited so much attention—it would 
create such confusion in the ranks of the supporters of Col. Young, as would, in all 
probability, defeat a rival for whom it cannot be supposed he entertained much affection. 
it must have been under some such impressions, that, contrary to the expectations, and 
to the surprise of all parties, on the 2nd day of June he issued a proclamation requir- 
£ an extra session of the legislature on the 2nd day of August.’’—W. C. F. 

? Azariah C. Flagg. 


y io 


148 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


Gov. Yates’ future political prospects were by this act totally de- 
stroyed. Col. Young, who obtained the nomination for Governor on 
our side, not aware of Mr. Clay’s want of strength with the rank 
and file of the party in the state, allowed himself, in an evil hour, 
to be persuaded to come out with a Card substantially avowing his 
preference for that gentleman’s elevation to the Presidency. This 
disgusted the Republicans by thousands and I had great difficulty 
to prevent a meeting at the Capitol to renounce his nomination. 

These antecedent weaknesses and disastrous results were relieved 
by a single amusing feature, and that was the very characteristic 
tho’ somewhat irreverent reply of Gov. Yates to his relative, John 
Van Ness Yates, then Secretary of State, who, designing to console 
him in his adversity, said to him, “ Well, after all, Governor, one 
thing is true of you that cannot be said of any of your Predecessors. 
You are the only Governor who came in unanimously!” “Yes, John, 
by G—,” was the reply, “and, it may be added, who went out unani- 
mously!” 


ae 


~~ er =. = oor 


CHAPTER XIII. 


I left Albany for Washington as completely broken down a poli- 
ticilan as my bitterest enemies could desire. On board of the small 
steamer that took us to the larger one that waited for her passengers 
below the overslaugh it was my luck to meet Mrs. Clinton (the Gov- 
ernor’s wife) and her brother James Jones. The latter said to me 
whilst we were ° seated at the breakfast table, “ Now is the time 
admirably fitted for a settlement of all difficulties between Mr. Clin- 
ton and yourself.” I thanked him for his friendly suggestion—the 
sincerity of which I did not in the least doubt—but replied that my 
fortunes were at too low an ebb to be made the subject of a compro- 
mise, and that when they improved a little I would remember his 
generous offer. 

I stopped at New York only long enough to pay the bets I had lost 
on the State election and then went on for the first time without Mr. 
King. I was dissatisfied with his course in the election, with which I 
had no right to meddle; but, as I was not in a mood to form a very 
correct estimate of my rights in that regard, I indulged my feelings. 
1 found at New York the good old Patroon Van Renssalaer, who with 
the Dutch pertinacity and fidelity saw in my distressed political for- 
tunes a reason for sticking to me and insisted on our journeying 
together. At Philadelphia we were overtaken by Mr. King who said, 
in his peculiar way, that he had been enquired of by his servant 
_ William “why it was that Mr. Van Buren had for the first time 
_ passed on without calling,” and that the only answer he could make 

to William’s natural question was that he knew of no reason and did 
_ not believe that a good one existed. I muttered some civil explana- 
_ tion that explained nothing and when we reached Washington Messrs. 
_ Van Rensselaer, McLane, Cuthbert* and myself took a furnished 
- house and Mr. King joined a mess at the Hotel; our accustomed 
. social relations were, however, in most other respects, maintained. 
_ The Presidential canvass in the House of Representatives soon 
_ commenced and was carried on to its close with intense feeling and 
interest. I obtained a meeting of the friends of Crawford in the 
New York delegation and proposed to them in a few remarks that 
_ we should abstain to the end from taking a part in favor of either 
_ of the three gentlemen returned to the House—Jackson, Adams or 


oe MS. II, p. 10. 

_  7?Stephen Van Rensselaer of New York, Louis McLane of Maryland, and Alfred 
_ Cuthbert of Georgia. 
> 149 


150 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


Clay [Crawford]. I assured them that there was no danger that an 
election would not be made by others and that if the friends of Mr. 
Crawford stood aloof from the intrigues which such a contest 
would produce unavoidably they would form a nucleus around which 
the old Republicans of the Union might rally if the new Administra- 
tion did not act upon their principles as we apprehended would be 
the case. They resolved with perfect unanimity to pursue that 
course, and I do not believe that a single individual of our number 
ever thought of departing from it: certainly not one did so depart. 
Judge Hammond was therefore misinformed in regard to their in- 
tention to vote in any event for Mr. Adams.* 

On one occasion Francis Johnson, of Kentucky, a prominent sup- 
porter of Mr. Clay, called, by appointment, upon Mr, McLane and 
myself, and in a long conversation endeavoured to prevail upon us to 
unite with the friends of Mr. Clay in making Mr. Adams President. 
Finding us unyielding, and standing with his hand on the door he 
said that with our aid that result could be easily realized and that he 
was not absolutely certain but thought that they could accomplish 
it without our assistance. I stepped to the door and said “I think 
that very possible, but, Mr. Johnson, I beg you to remember what 
I now say to you—if you do so you sign Mr. Clay’s political death 
warrant. He will never become President be your motives as pure 
as you claim them to be.” He was a light hearted man and not apt 
to take anything gravely, but replied with a sensibility unusual to 
him that I might be right, but yet that he believed they would do 
it and trust to the purity of their intentions for their justification. 
The friends of Crawford lacked but one of being half of the New, 
York delegation, so that the diversion of a single vote from Mr. 


Adams would produce a tie. Gen. Van Rensselaer was, through ~ 
his first wife, a brother-in-law to Gen. Hamilton, and had, at an — 
early age, imbibed his dislike to the Adamses. He at no time en- — 


tertained the idea of voting for Mr. Adams and communicated his 


views to me at an early period and without reserve. On the morning © 
of the Election he came to my room and told me he had some thought | 


of voting for Gen. Jackson, and asked me whether it would make any 
difference in the general result, adding that as he had uniformly told 
me that he intended to vote for Crawford he did not think it proper 


to change his determination without letting me know it. I told him > 


that as his vote could not benefit Mr. Crawford it was of no im- 


ee 


portance to us whether it was given to him or to Gen. Jackson, but — 


submitted whether, as his intention was known to others as well as 
myself, there was an adequate motive for subjecting himself to the 
imputation of fickleness of purpose by a change which would pro- 
Ce ee ee 


1 Hammond, Political History of New York, TT; 0s 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 151 


duce no beneficial result to any one. He reflected a moment and 
then said I was right and that he would adhere to-‘Crawford. When 
he arrived at the Capitol Messrs. Clay and Webster had an animated 
conversation with him in the Speaker’s room. The first intimation 
I had of the hesitation they produced in his mind was a message 
from Mr. McLane, through Mr. Archer,’ that Mr. Van Rensselaer had 
been staggered by the representations of those gentlemen, accom- 
panied by a request that I would come to the House and talk to him.. 
I refused to do so on the ground that I had no right to interfere with 
his action in that way; the communications that had passed between 
him and myself having all been voluntary on his part and the great 
disparity in our ages rendering any attempt to influence him at such 
a moment indelicate and inadmissible. Mr. Archer fully concurred 
in these views, but in a few minutes returned with a request of the 
same character, and from the same source, of increased urgency. I 
consented to go into the House, and if Mr. Van Rensselaer, of his own 
accord, addressed me upon the subject to do what I could to dissuade 
him from the course it was feared he would take. 

As I entered the Chamber Mr. Cuthbert met me and said that it 
was not necessary that I should do anything in the matte, as Mr. 
Van Rensselaer had that moment assured him that he certainly 
would not vote for Mr. Adams on the first ballot. I remained to 
see the voting which took place presently afterwards, and was pained 
‘to witness Mr. Van Rensselaer’s obvious agitation and distress. 
When the votes of the New York delegation were counted it was 
found that Mr. Adams had a majority of one. The vote of the state 
was of course given to him and he was elected. Mr. Van Rensselaer 
at once admitted that he had voted for Mr. Adams and thus changed 
the anticipated result. The excitement was of course very great, 
and I hurried to our lodgings to prevent a breach between him and 
Mr. McLane, I found the General and Cuthbert sitting at opposite 
ends of the sofa, both much excited tho’ not a word had passed be- 
tween them. As I entered the former said “Well, Mr. Van Buren, 
you saw that I could not hold out!” I replied that I had no doubt 
he had done what he conscientiously believed to be right, that was 
_ enough and I hoped the subject would now be dismissed from our 


minds. I then went to Mr. McLane’s room and found him still more 


stirred up and it required the greatest effort on my part and 
_ a plenary exercise of Gen. Van Rensselaer’s amiability to prevent 
_ a breaking up of our Mess. 

Gen. James Hamilton, of South Carolina, had enquired of me in 
the morning what would be the result of the vote of our state and 
I assured him as I was fully authorized to do, that it would be a 


2 William S. Archer, of Virginia. 


152 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


tie. It had been ascertained that one of the Maryland delegation 
would, on the second ballot, vote for Gen. Jackson, and would con- 
tinue to do so. This would cause Mr. Adams’ vote to fall short two 
of the number required by the Constitution, and it was confidently 
calculated that rather than submit to a failure to make an election, 
a sufficient number of his supporters would feel themselves con- 
strained to go for Gen. Jackson, who had received a large plurality 
‘of the popular vote. This calculation was broken and every hope 
dissipated by Gen. Van Rensselaer’s sudden and unforeseen change. 
The excitement caused by it was therefore not surprising. 

I had asked no explanations of the General nor did I intend to 
do so, as I was satisfied he could not give any that it would be 
agreeable to him to make. But an evening or two after the election, 
whilst on our way to visit Mrs. Decatur,’ he volunteered an expla- 
nation which he did not make confidential but of which I did not 
speak until a long time afterwards, and, to the best of my recollec- 
tion, for the first time to Mr. Clay. He said that after what had 
passed between us he felt it to be due to me that he should explain 
the change in his vote which I had so little reason to expect. He 
then proceeded to inform me that when he arrived at the Capitol 
Mr. Clay invited him to the Speaker’s room where he found Mr. 
Webster; that they took the ground that the question of election or 
no election would depend upon his vote: that they portrayed to him 
the consequences that would in all probability result from a disor- 
ganization of the Government, and referred in very impressive 
terms to the great stake he had in the preservation of order from 
his° large estate, and kindred considerations. He said that his mind 
was much disturbed by these views which he had not before re- 
garded in so serious a light, but that he returned to the Chamber 
determined not to vote for Mr. Adams on the first ballot whatever 
he might be induced to do ultimately if their anticipations of a 
failure to make an election should prove ta be well founded. He 
took his seat fully resolved to vote for Mr. Crawford, but, before 
the box reached him, he dropped his head upon the edge of his desk 
and made a brief appeal to his Maker for his guidance in the mat- 
ter—a practice he frequently observed on great emergencies—and 
when he removed his hand from his eyes he saw on the floor di- 
rectly below him a ticket bearing the name of John Quincy Adams. 
This occurrence, at a moment of great excitement and anxiety, he 
was led to regard as an answer to his appeal, and taking up the 
ticket he put it in the box. In this way it was that Mr. Adams 
was made President. 


1 Mrs. Stephen Decatur. ° MS. II, p. 15. 


bene D 


me 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 153 


When I spent some days with Mr. Clay at Ashland, upon his invi- 
tation in 1842, he rallied me considerably upon the General’s vote, 
and spoke of the labor it had cost him to correct the heresies I had 

sown in his mind. Altho’ there was, as I have said, no injunction of 
secrecy upon the General’s communication and it was not impossible 
that he omitted it to enable me to satisfy my friends in regard to 
his conduct, I yet felt a delicacy in speaking of it on account of its 
peculiar character, and therefore submitted in silence to Mr. Clay’s 
pleasantry. Upon his visit to me in 1849, he happened one evening 
to recur to the subject, when I told him that I had on a former 
occasion omitted to place that matter before him in its true light 
from a feeling of doubt in regard to the effect that a true relation of 
the subject might have upon the reputation of a man whom we 
both esteemed so highly, but that upon farther reflection I had come 
to the conclusion that as it would be only strengthened in the point 
upon which his merit was most conspicuous and real, that of sincere 
piety and honesty, I felt that there could be no objection to my giv- 
ing him the General’s explanation of his vote in his own words, to 
which he listened with great interest. 

I joined the immense throng at Mr. Adams’ house on the day of 
the Inauguration and after paying my respects to him passed on to 
the White House to take leave of the retiring President. I found 
Mr. Monroe literally alone, and was as usual kindly received. I re- 
mained an hour without being joined by a single individual, when I 
parted from him for the last time. Owing to an early and some- 
what excited difference in opinion upon what I could not but regard 
as an unfortunate point in his administration, our relations had 
never been confidential. I nevertheless always respected and es- 
teemed him. Although not possessed of remarkable talents, he passed 


_ through an almost unequalled number of responsible public employ- 


ments without leaving a stain upon his character. 
Near the close of this session I was pained to witness once more 
the extent to which advancing years had impaired the power of self- 


control for which my worthy colleague had been much distinguished. 


This exhibition was the more distressing on account of the place 
where it occurred. The Society of Shakers, residents of my native 
county, sent to me their petition to Congress praying to be allowed 
exemption from military services and from other duties which con- 
flicted with their religious faith. I presented the Petition with 


a brief reference to the characters of the petitioners and moved that 
_ it should be referred to the Committee on the Militia. Mr. King im- 


mediately rose, made for him, a very violent attack on the appli- 
_cants, as a band of fanatics, and ended by a motion to lay the 


_ Petition on the table, adding that it would be but justly treated were 
. thrown under the table. 


154 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


There was something so extraordinary, so unexpected and to all 
present so amazing in his concluding remarks, as they related to 
myself, that they failed to disturb my own temper. I was thus 
enabled to describe very calmly, in reply, the true character and 
condition of the petitioners,—concurring in the condemnation by 
my colleague of their religious views, but giving them credit for 
their charities, their sobriety and their industry,—claiming for them 
the common right to petition Congress for a redress of grievances 
even tho’ they were not real,—stating what I considered due to my- 
self in the matter, and concluding with a declaration of my inten- 
tion, for reasons which the Senate would not fail to appreciate, to 
postpone all comments upon the treatment which the petitioners had 
received from my colleague until it should appear that he persisted 
in his opposition to my motion in the spirit which had been exhibited. 
The Senate was evidently relieved by the direction thus given to the 
subject, and after a moment’s pause, without farther remarks from 
any quarter, met the motion to commit by an emphatic aye without 
a single negative vote. 

The occurrence produced a suspension of personal intercourse be- 
tween us, but Mr. King’s good sense and correct feeling soon put an 
end to it. Within a day of two thereafter he approached me at the 
adjournment of the Senate and proposed to take a seat in my car- 
riage. On our way from the Capitol he expressed his great regret 
on account of the occurrence which I have described,—his strong 
feelings against the Shakers having caused him to overlook what 
was due to myself. He apprised me of his intention to leave Wash- 
ington in a day or two, never again to resume his seat in the Senate, 
and said that he would embrace that opportunity to make his ac- 
knowledgments for the respect and kindness with which I had treated 
him. He regarded it as a remarkable circumstance that we should 
have passed as opponents thro’ so exciting a Presidential canvass as 
that which had just closed without more incidents to disturb our 
feelings and to threaten our friendship than the few which had un- 
happily arisen, and that he owed it to me to say, before we parted, 
how sensible he was that we were in a very great degree indebted 
for that. exemption to my amiable disposition and self command; 
and he concluded by pressing me earnestly to pay him a visit on my 
return home after the adjournment. 

I need not speak of the extent to which my feelings were allayed 


by this seasonable and kind explanation. I visited him on my re- - 


turn and was received with his usual cordiality. He said that some 
of his friends had told him that I would not keep my promise to 
come to him, but that he understood me better than they did, to 
which I might have added that there were not a few of mine who 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 155 


censured me for doing so. Some time afterwards I received a letter 
from Mr. King informing me of his acceptance of the Mission to 
England, tendered to him by Mr. Adams. I assured him in reply 
of my gratification that he had found himself in a situation to 
accept a place so honorable and for the duties of which: he was so 
well qualified, and wished him very sincerely a successful mission 
and safe return. His health, however, soon failed and in about a 
year he came home an invalid. I called at his home in the city, 
and he directed that I should be admitted, but his old servant William 
informed me that he was very ill and suggested the propriety of 
deferring my visit for a day or two, in which I acquiesced. He grew 
rapidly worse and shortly after died, and I was thus prevented from 
seeing him again. 

Mr. King’s career as a public man, tho’ it failed to fulfill the expec- 
tations which were justified by its early promise, was highly distin- 
euished. He was appointed a Senator in Congress by the state of 
Massachusetts as early as 178-, and also a delegate to represent that 
State in the Convention which framed the present Constitution of 
the United States, was made Minister to England by Gen. Washing- 
ton in 1796, and represented the country at that court until the acces- 
sion of Mr. Jefferson to the Presidency, when he requested his recall, 
was twice elected to the U. S. Senate by the state of New York, to 
which he had removed, and was actually one of its representatives in 
that body when he was nominated by Mr. Adams and appointed to 
the English Mission. In politics he was from first to last a federalist 
of the Hamilton school. The only material difference between him 
and his old associates arose from a diversity of sentiment not upon 
any general principle but in regard to the extent to which upon a 
particular occasion and a special question ° their country required an 
intermission of party. He understood too well the working of the 
public mind not to know that, after the sacking of the Capitol by the 
enemy, the War, whatever might have been its previous character, 
must become national, and that those who failed to support it would 
fall under the ban of popular opinion. Viewing the matter in this 
light and moved also by a genuine partriotic impulse he dissented 
from the course pursued by his party in that crisis, arrayed himself 
on the side of his country and zealously sustained the Government. 
This gave him a position in the public estimation which was denied 
to the mass of his former associates and contributed largely to his 
re-election to the Senate. A man of sound sense and good taste, 
having through the greater part of his life associated with eminent 
men, as well in Europe as in his own Country, he had acquired a 
thorough knowledge of what belonged to the proprieties of every 


ee SS eee —eeeeeooOooeeememmm™m 


° MS. Il, p. 20. 


oe ae oe ae eee: 


4 Pe Te 


oe rr eee, 


Ne ALE RRP RE 


ates 


156 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


situation in which he was placed, and possessing withal a natural — 
dignity of manner was well fitted to adorn high public stations. Mr. 
Jefferson, comparing him intellectually with others, spoke of Mr. 
King as a “plausible man.” Although I did not consider his mind 
remarkable either for vigor or comprehensiveness, it yet struck me 
that this remark did not do justice to it. Plausible he certainly was, 
but he was also always impressive, at times eloquent and forcible. 
He generally selected one or two of the principal points presented — 
by any subject under discussion, and applying to their elucidation all 
the power of his mind, seldom failed to do them ample justice. He — 
never attempted what Hamilton scarcely ever omitted to do—to fol- 
low the subject into all its legitimate bearings and bringing into view 
the collateral issues which sprung out of it and were logically entitled 
to influence its solution, to bend the whole matter to a great point — 
most favorable to his argument,—a practice that caused Callender to 
say of him that “ he beat his guinea into an acre of gold leaf.” If Mr. 
King had attempted this I think he would have failed. 


Although far advanced in Federal politics I must not lose sight 
of those of my own state. I will therefore, before I touch upon the 
course of the Adams Administration, notice the most interesting por- 
tions of her political history anterior to the very sudden and la- 
mented death of Gov. Clinton. His prospects were never more 
promising than in the early part of the year 1825. His triumphant 
election as Governor of the largest state in the Union by the greatest 
majority she had ever given to any. candidate, produced by a wide 
spread conviction in the public mind that he had suffered great in- 

_ justice, required only ordinary tact and discretion on his part to en- 
sure a continuing prosperity. The Erie Canal—the success of which 
_ was his richest source of strength in the state—was completed this 
season, and in the month of November a few days previous to the 
state election, the mingling of the waters of the Atlantic and of the 
_ Lakes was celebrated through the country lying between them. The 
_ re-election of Mr. Adams was considered, from his well understood 
. want of popularity, highly improbable; Mr. Clay, by accepting the 
_ office of Secretary of State, had for the time put himself out of the 
line of competitors for the Presidency ; Mr. Crawford had been with- 
_ drawn from public life by indisposition; the sanguine efforts in 
behalf of Mr. Calhoun had proved signally abortive, and the lead- 
ing politicians inclined to the opinion that Gen. Jackson’s strength 
could not stand the test of a four years exposure to the public scrutiny. 
Under such favoring circumstances it was not surprising that Mr. 
Clinton and his friends should have regarded his chances for the 
_ Presidency as better than those of any other aspirant, yet strange as 
it may seem, it is nevertheless true that the popular impulse in his 
3 favor recently so strong was at the time of his great Canal celebra- 
tion already subsiding, and the elaborate demonstrations of joy at 
_ the completion of that work coldly received by the mass of the 
_ People. Having, as they considered, justly rebuked the violence of 
his opponents, they seemed disposed to leave his future fortunes to 
his own management and to the course of events. 
I did not accompany the Cortége from Buffalo to New York, but 
joined in the procession at Albany and attended the public dinner 
" given on the occasion. My companion, in the former ceremonial, 
_ was J. W. Taylor, who was a few weeks afterwards chosen Speaker 
_ of the House of Representatives. Satisfied by my own observation 
; 157 


: 
; 
; 


CHAPTER XIV. 
Y- 


a 


158 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 


and by the accounts I had received from different parts of the state | 
that the injurious effects upon the harmony and efficiency of our 
own party by the combined agitation of Mr. Clinton’s removal and — 
the Electoral question had substantially spent themselves, I replied — 
to Taylor’s observations in regard to the imposing character of Mr. — 
Clinton’s position by pronouncing a very confident opinion that we — 
should defeat him in the elections for the legislature to be held — 
within a few days. He expressed his surprise at my delusion and ~ 
repeated the conversation to Gen. Van Rensselaer. The latter in-— 
formed me that he had told the Governor what I had said to Taylor, — 
who had assured him that there was but one senatorial district in 
the state in which we stood the slightest chance, and that the ma- 
jority against us in the House of Assembly would be overwhelming. — 
Gen. Van Rensselaer was evidently distressed by my confidence in — 
a different result for tho’ perhaps liking me personally quite as well — 
as he liked the Governor, he was on political grounds desirous that — 
the latter should be sustained. 

We elected three of the eight Senators, and a decided majority 
in the House of Assembly. Although in this election the Demo- 
cratic party acted in undisguised opposition to Gov. Clinton it is an — 
undoubted fact that their prejudices against him had then already 
considerably abated. Their distaste for Mr. Adams—a strong and 
I believe well founded belief that the Governor sympathized in that 
feeling—and the fact that many of the leading friends of Mr. Adams ~ 
in the state and a large proportion of the members elected to the 
Legislature on the same ticket with Mr. Clinton at the election of © 
1824, were as hostile to him as they were to us, contributed to that — 
change. Informal conferences took place at Albany, during the — 
session of the Legislature of 1825-6, between prominent democrats 
and some of the friends of the Governor with a view to bring this — 
feeling to practical results. The Governor nominated his connexion 
by marriage, Samuel Jones, always before a zealous Federalist, to 
the office of Chancellor, and the Senate, in which our friends were 
largely in the majority confirmed the nomination promptly and 
unanimously. It was expected that he would give an indication that 
he reciprocated the feelings of returning good will which had been, 
in various ways, manifested, and the nomination of Mr. Redfield* — 
for the office of Circuit Judge was looked to as the proof of such dis- — 
position. He was believed to be personally favorable to this meas- 
ure, but there was a lion in his path. Although he had obtained his 
election by temporary secessions from the democratic ranks the great 
body of his supporters was composed of the remains of the old fed-— 
eral party and they never could be taught the wisdom or expediency : 


1Heman J. Redfield. 


° 
Pc) 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 159 


_of foregoing the full enjoyment of present power with a view to fu- 
ture advantages. He disappointed the wishes of our side, but se- 
lected a democratic adherent the least obnoxious to us. 
The sayings and doings of this winter, altho’ they ameliorated 
_ the prejudices against Mr. Clinton in the Democratic ranks, and 
excited friendly feelings in the breasts of many which did not 
altogether subside during the brief remainder of his life, yet car- 
ried conviction to the democratic mind, on the whole, that he had 
become so connected with the federalists by the support he had 
received from them, by social intercourse and latterly by family 
ties—all cemented by a common antipathy against the ascendency 
_ of Southern principles in our National Councils, as to render his 
support by us impossible without our°® consent to an amalgamation 
_of parties in the state—which was deemed neither possible nor de- 
sirable. I had a long and friendly conversation, neither private 
nor confidential, with Gov. Clinton, on my way to Washington, at 
the house of a mutual friend, to which we were both invited, and 
_ returned. in the Spring with a sincere desire that he should be re- 
elected without opposition. My views were confined to that single 
object. I had long been thoroughly convinced that his entangle- 
ments with the federalists would always present an insuperable ob- 
stacle to anything like the re-establishment of old political rela- 
tions between him and the democratic party. As an individual I 
was influenced by feelings of personal kindness and not a little 
by a consciousness of the unintentional injustice I had done him in 
_ the matter of the appointment of Attorney General; as a member 
_ of the democratic party I felt that his re-election TatnbuE a contest 
would be a compliment that would go far to efface the severity of 
_ their treatment of him in his removal from the Canal Board, and I 
saw no adequate motive and some embarrassment in a contest for 
- Governor in the then state of National politics. I have heretofore 
_ mentioned Dr. Cooper, then President of Columbia College in 
_ South Carolina. He was son-in-law of the celebrated Dr. Priestly,’ 
and himself in many respects a remarkable man. Mr. Jefferson 
_ expressed his regrets to me that they could not avail themselves of 
his services as President of the University of Virginia, on account 
of objections that were raised by many of the Trustees to his re- 


ligious views, as he thought him by far the fittest man he knew of 
for the place. The active, probably violent part he took in politics 


’ during the administration of John Adams subjected him to indict- 
‘ment and trial under the sedition act, and he was on conviction 
sentenced to suffer imprisonment and to pay a fine of, I believe, 
8 ES SE RE ee a eee 


* MS. II, p. 25. 1Thomas Cooper. 2 Joseph Priestly. 


160 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


four hundred dollars. The imprisonment he endured, and I intro-— 
duced and supported a Bill to refund to him the amount of the — 
fine—which has, I believe, been since refunded. This induced him 


to write me several friendly letters, continued to a period when, as 


he expressed it, he had not, in Quaker phrase, “ freedom ” to vote for — 
me for President however much he esteemed me personally. - One — 


of these letters was written during the administration of John 
Quincy Adams, on the subject of the candidate to be brought for- 
ward against him. He expressed great respect and much good 
will towards Mr. Clinton and could see but one objection to him, 
and that was an apprehension, expressed in his usual strong style, 


that Mr. C. would be too much under the influence of the clergy—an — 
apprehension founded upon an address then recently delivered by ~ 


him before the Bible Society. Coming up the river in the same 


boat with Mr. Clinton shortly after its receipt, I informed him that — 


I had a letter from the Doctor in which he was particularly men- 
tioned in connection with the Presidency, but that as he might not 
be pleased with its contents I would not offer to shew it to him—but 
would do so if he desired it. He was well acquainted with the Doc- 


tor’s character and I handed him the letter at his request. He col- 
oured as he read it, but smiled and said that there was no ground ~ 


for the apprehension. 

Doctor Cooper came north the same summer and brought me a 
letter of introduction from Thomas Addis Emmett, I invited Mr. 
Clinton to meet him at dinner, and the latter was much pleased with 
the originality and invariable force of the Doctor’s observations. 


Mr. Clinton was, in a little more than a year afterwards, forever — 


removed from the political stage by the hand of death, and the Demo- 
erats of South Carolina took early ground in favor of Gen. Jackson. 
To this Dr. Cooper was earnestly opposed insisting that it would be 
far better in them to go for the re-election of Mr. Adams and giving 
reasons for his opinion which were characteristic of the man. These 


were that if they intended to carry their opposition to a protective — 


tariff to the extent contemplated by them, as to which as a nullifier 
he trusted that there would be no flinching, Gen. Jackson was the last 


man they should think of for the Presidency because he would be 


very apt to hang them, whilst they might hope to intimidate Mr. 
Adams. 

Having reason to apprehend that the impression that there might — 
be no opposition to the re-election of Gov. Clinton was causing con- 
siderable uneasiness among our political friends I made diligent 
enquiries in regard to ‘herd dispositions and to that end visited sev- 
eral parts of the state. The result was an entire conviction that any 
attempt to prevent a counter-nomination would produce serious dis- 


Se ee 


: 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 161 


cord in our own ranks and ought not therefore to be made. A consid- 
erable number of our delegates on their way to the Herkimer conven- 
tion met together at my house. Among them were Silas Wright and 
Perley Keyes, two of the most influential leaders of the party. Find- 
ing after the lapse of some time, that no one introduced the subject 
of their Convention about to be held, and understanding the cause of 
their reserve, I introduced it myself by observing that it was an 
extraordinary circumstance that we should have been so long to- 
gether without a word being said in regard to the business they had 
been appointed to perform. The ice being thus broken Mr. Keyes 
expressed a desire to hear my views upon the subject. These were 
given without reserve. Commencing with an admission that I would 
myself have preferred acquiescence in the re-election of Goy. Clinton 
and the reasons for that preference, I proceeded to inform them of 
the enquiries I had made and the result of them, which was that I 
was satisfied that a nomination could not be omitted without seri- 
ously distracting our party and that I could not urge that course in 
view of such a consequence. They were relieved and gratified by this 
explanation, assuring me that there was great unanimity among our 
friends in favor of a nomination, that they had heard with regret 
that I was averse to it, and one of the delegation told me that. the 
meeting at which he was appointed had gone so far as to advise him 
and his colleagues to nominate one of themselves, if they could get no 
other candidate. 

On being asked whom they had thought of as a candidate they 
without a dissenting voice named Gen. William Paulding of West- 
chester. I expressed the greatest respect for Gen. Paulding saying 
that I would with pleasure make him Governor if it was in my 
power to do so, but that there were, in my judgment, strong objec- 
tions to his nomination. The place of his residence and his well 
known participation in the feelings of his neighbors, adverse to 
the construction of the Erie Canal, would alone make his selection 
inexpedient. But there was another and strange as it might seem 
to them a still more formidable objection. I alluded to the report 
already extensively circulated that the General was the subject of 
a singular monomania in regard to his physical condition—one well 
adapted to be made the subject of ridicule. Knowing Mr. Clinton’s 
proclivity to that species of assault, and having on several occa- 
sions witnessed his ability to make it effectual, I feared that he would 
turn this report into a weapon for that purpose and whether true or 
false that it would be in his hands very damaging against one who 
was from other causes a weak candidate. These remarks naturally 


led to a call upon me to name a candidate more likely to be success- 


full. I replied that since I had changed my views in regard to a 
127483°—vo1 2—20—-11 7 


ee eee 


162 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


nomination I had reflected much upon that question as one likely to — 
involve our future success as a party and that I had come to a con- i 
clusion to which I was quite sure they would not upon first impres- — 
sions agree, but I desired that they would hear me patiently and — 
then do as they thought best. I confessed that in making my se- 
lection I had looked beyond the election of a Governor, and had 
been materially influenced by a deep sense of the disastrous conse- 
quences that would follow anything like a signal defeat in the pres- 
ent condition of National politics and so near a Presidential election 
in which I hoped to see the democracy of New York act an impor- — 
tant part. °I said that I had never known an occasion on which I ~ 
was so willing as at present to make sacrifices to availability, or one 
on which that point was entitled to so much consideration ;—that it — 
should be remembered that we had been overwhelmed at the previous 
election of Governor by a union between the friends of Clinton, 
Adams and Clay, for although our candidate Col. Young, had on the 
eve of the election declared for Mr. Clay and had received the votes — 
of a few of his supporters, most of them had acted upon the prin- | 
ciple which on such occasions usually controls the action of minor 
factions, that of striking at the strongest, and had voted for Clin- 
ton to put down Crawford;—that a similar union between the 
friends of Adams, Clay, Jackson and Calhoun had broken us down — 
+n the Presidential election;—that Mr. Adams had offered Mr. Clin- © 
ton the first seat in his Cabinet, which upon his declension was given 
to Mr. Clay, and that there was, at the moment when I spoke, ap- 
parently, a more cordial union between the friends of Clinton, 
Adams and Clay than existed in 1824, and, if we so acted as to com- 
pel them to go together, that something like the same result might be 
produced. It was well understood that we intended to support Gen. 
Jackson, and I urged that if we nominated a candidate who was 
avowedly in his favor we would present to those three political in-— 
terests the same inducements they had in 1824 to coalesce, but that — 
having good reasons to believe that the apparent union between the 2 
friends of Clinton on the one hand, and those of Adams and Clay, | 
now identified, on the other, was a hollow one, if we nominated a 
candidate whom the latter would regard as their friend, and would 
therefore favour or be only suspected of favoring by his election,” 
we would drive a wedge into that union that would sever it forever. | 
I then named William B. Rochester as the man whose oor 


ee ee 


would produce that result. His father had been a partner in business 
with the father [-in-law] of Mr. Clay, and he was at that moment on 
his return from a Mission which had been conferred on him through 
Mr. Clay’s influence. He was also, as I remarked, eligibly situated 


° MS. Il, p. 30, : 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 163 


in regard to the Canal, had so conducted himself as to avoid creat- 
ing strong prejudices on the part of our friends, and altho’ we might 
_ have some trouble with him if elected we should probably succeed 
in electing reliable men to all the other Departments of the Govern- 
ment and in that event would be able to prevent him from doing 
- much injury to our cause. I believed him honest and had obtained 
a small appointment for him from the General Government, and 
__was personally very partial to him 2lthough I did not suppose that 
_ I could influence him against the wishes of Mr. Clay. 

My exposition made a favorable impression upon the majority 
of my auditors, but Wright and Keyes remained immovable.t_ They 
would consent to take Rochester for Lieutenant Governor, but his 
nomination for Governor, all other considerations apart, would be 
such a surprise upon the public that it would for that reason fail. 
They held to the old rule of a regular progression, and could not 
believe in the policy of starting a new man for so important a place. 
The objection had no weight with me but they persisted in it. 
I called those gentlemen back after the others left, and begged them 
to think the matter over again on their way to Herkimer and to sac- 
rifice their prejudices against Mr. Clay, which I knew lay at the 
bottom of their opposition, to the demands of the crisis. 
_ William L. Marcy, then Adjutant General of the State, having 

official business with Gov. Clinton on the following day was asked 
_ what his friends would do at Herkimer, and on his replying that 
_ they would probably make a nomination, the Governor exclaimed, 
in a lively tone, “Gen. Paulding, I suppose!” On being informed 
that it might be Rochester, Marcy told me that he sobered down 
and became thoughtful to a degree that embarrassed the latter and 
induced him to propose to postpone their business, to which the 
Governor readily assented. Although not apt to place a very 
high estimate upon the influence of his opponents, Gov. Clinton 
saw at a glance the direction in which such a nomination would 

_ point and the danger that would flow from it. Keyes and Wright 
_ acknowledged to me afterwards that they saw the matter in the 
same light before they got to Herkimer and used their influence upon 
_ their arrival to secure the nomination of Rochester which was 
_ made. The matter worked as we anticipated. The nomination 

“was reputed to have been made through the influence of the National 
_ Administration, and that report received no contradiction from 
Washington. The frail cord that united the latter with the Clinton- 
_jans was snapped, and could never have been reunited if Mr. Clinton 
had lived. For many days after the election, Rochester was sup- - 
posed to have succeeded, and Gov. Clinton was finally found to 


1 Silas Wright, jr. and Perley Keyes. 


164 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


have been saved by. the votes of our friends on the Southern borders 
of the state, given to him and to our Candidate for Lieut. Governor 
because they were the open friends of a State Road from the River 
to the Lakes along that border, the construction of which Mr. 


Clinton had recommended to the Legislature whilst there was rea- — 


son to believe that Rochester would entertain different views of that 
project. 

We gave to Rochester a faithful support but had not much reason 
as a party to grieve at the result. We carried the Legislature, and 
every thing except the Governor, and cleared the way for our suc- 
cess in the Presidential election. I had been doubtless in some de- 
gree induced to recommend the course that was pursued by the 
circumstance that my re-appointment to the Senate of the United 
States would depend upon the Legislature then chosen. But 1 am 
very sure that the influence arising from that source was subordi- 
nate to my desire for the promotion of the cause I had heartily 
embraced and actively supported. The readiness with which I had 
before sacrificed high official station for its success must go far with 
candid minds to sustain this assertion. 

I received daily accounts of the feelings of Governor Clinton 
during the time when the election was supposed to have gone against 
him from one of his most devoted friends and I can say with per- 


fect truth that I listened to his account with no other feeling than — 
regret that circumstances beyond my control had compelled me to — 


contribute to the result he so painfully deprecated. Of this his 
friend was well convinced or he would not have made his communi- 


cation to me. In explanation of the supposed loss of this election — 


and of other adverse results in his political career the Governor 
said to this friend, who was an old democrat, that he had by the 
force of circumstances been connected with a party which was under 
the ban of public opinion and whose unpopularity would render 
their support disastrous to any publi¢ man. The suspense as to the 
result continued, as I have already mentioned, for several days as 
we were not then favored with the facilities to convey information 
we now possess. On the last night of its duration, the Governor’s 
friend to whom I have referred, called upon me in high glee with a 
report that Steuben County, from which we confidently expected 
more than one thousand majority, had, in consequence of the State 
Road question, given more than that majority to Mr. Clinton, and 


wished to know before he communicated it to the Governor what I — 
thought of its truth, and effect if true. I told him that I considered — 


it an improbable rumour, but that we had all along been apprehen- 
sive about that part of the State—that it might be true and if so that 


> 


: 


8 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 165 


_ Mr. Clinton was undoubtedly reelected. He literally ran ° from me 
_ for fear that some other person might anticipate him at the Gov- 
_ ernor’s house with the good news. The next morning being Sunday 
a few moments before I started for church I heard the sound of 
the steam being blown off, signaling the arrival of the Southern 
boat, and immediately after I saw a busy friend of Mr. Clinton pass 
my window in hot haste in the direction of the Governor’s residence. 
I directed Gen. Marcy’s attention to him, saying that the steam- 
_ boat had, I did not doubt, brought the news from the Southern tier 
_ of counties which reelected the Governor, but this he did not credit. 
As we walked to the church I told him the mystery would be solved 
by the late arrival at church of the Governor and Mrs. Clinton. 
After considerable progress had been made in the services they ar- 
rived and Mrs. Clinton had no sooner settled herself in her seat than 
she turned towards us and favored us with a look which induced 
Marcy to whisper to me that the election was indeed lost. 
; This election ardently as it was contested and intense as was the 
_ excitement caused by its closeness, did not in the least aggravate 
the political hostility that had long existed between Mr. Clinton 
and the democratic party. He did not the less respect them for 
_ having supported with good faith and zeal a nominee who was not 
at heart the object of their preference, and the great addition to 
his previous prejudices against Adams and Clay made by the con- 
duct of their friends in the recent elections went far to neutralize 
his antipathy towards his fair and open opponents. I had every 
_ reason to believe that such was the case in regard to myself per- 
_ sonally. Altho’ not a word had ever passed between us, either 
_ directly or through friends, he was made to understand,—in what 
_ way I never knew but have guessed that it was thro’ Mr. Knower, 
_ the father-in-law of Gen. Marcy,—the nature of my feelings towards 
him [Clinton] and the extent to which I had been willing to go to 
place him on an equal footing with his compeers in the Presidential 
' canvass, and he appreciated correctly the necessity which overruled 
_ that disposition. 

The election pleced a sufficient majority of my friends in both 
branches of the Legislature to secure my re-appointment to the 
_ Senate against all opposition, yet I had the best reason to believe 
F that great efforts were made by the friends of the National Admin- 

istration to prevail upon Gov. Clinton to unite in an attempt to 
| prevent my return, and that he promptly and definitively refused to 
_ do so. Some of his friends over whom he had the most influence 
_ voted for me and I was informed by his aid, Col. Bloodgood? that 
_ a day or two before he died he had spoken of me in kind and com- 

_plimentary terms. 


° MS. TT, p. 35. 1De Witt Bloodgood. 


= 


166 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


The public mind at Washington was deeply agitated by the ae 7 


of the Governor’s sudden death. Political rivalry, so rife at the 
moment, was hushed for a season and rooted prejudices displaced 
by feelings of sincere regret. The silencing of animosity and the 
awakening of charity and sympathy in the human heart in the 
presence of death is always a grateful subject of contemplation to 
the benevolent mind, and when these effects are produced by the 
sudden close of a prominent and influential public life, while yet in 
mid career, it is no less matter of satisfaction to the patriot. Ata 
meeting of the representatives in Congress from the State of New 
York, convened for the purpose of expressing their feelings on this 
occasion, the following remarks were made by me,? which I here 
insert from a report published at the time. 


The honorable Martin Van Buren of the Senate addressed the meeting 
nearly in the following words: 


Mr. Chairman: We have met to pay a tribute of respect to the memory of 
our late Governor and distinguished fellow-citizen, De Witt Clinton. Some 
of our brethren have been so kind as to ask me to prepare a suitable expres- 
sion of our feelings: and I have, in pursuance of their wishes, drawn up 
what has occurred to me, as proper to be said on the occasion. Before I sub- 
mit it to the consideration of the meeting, I beg leave to be indulged in a few 
brief remarks. I can say nothing of the deceased that is not familiar to you 
all. To all he was personally known, and to many of us intimately and 
familiarly, from our earliest infancy. The high order of his talents, the untir- 
ing zeal and great success with which those talents have, through a series 
of years, been devoted to the prosecution of plans of great public utility, are 
also known to you all; and by all I am satisfied duly appreciated. The 
subject can derive no additional interest or importance from any eulogy of 
mine. All other considerations out of view, the single fact that the greatest 
public improvement of the age in which we live was commenced under the 
guidance of his counsels, and splendidly accomplished under his immediate 
auspices, is of itself sufficient to fill the ambition of any man, and to give 
glory to any name. But, as has been justly said, his life and character and 
conduct have become the property of the historian, and there is no reason 
to doubt that history will do him justice. The triumph of his talent and pa- 
triotism cannot fail to become monuments of high and enduring fame. We 
cannot indeed but remember that in our own public career, collisions of opinion 
and action, at once extensive, earnest and enduring, have arisen between the 
deceased and many of us. For myself, sir, it gives me a deep-felt, though 


melancholy, satisfaction, to know, and more so to be conscious that the 


deceased also felt and acknowledged, that our political differences have been 
wholly free from that most venomous and corroding of all poisons—personal 


hatred. But in other respects it is now immaterial what was the character — 


of those collisions. They have been turned to nothing, and less than nothing, 
by the event we deplore, and I doubt not that we will, with one voice and 
one heart, yield to his memory the well deserved tribute of our respect of his 


1Qakley’s note to Van Buren Feb. 18, 1828, suggesting that the latter take the lead 
in the matter is in the Van Buren Papers in the Library of Congress. The remarks are 


from The National Journal, Washington, D. C., Feb. 22, 1828. The meeting was held 


in the Capitol, Feb. 19. 


. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 167 
' 


name and our warmest gratitude for his great and signal service. For myself, 
sir, so strong, so sincere and so engrossing is that feeling, that I, who whilst 
living never no never envied him anything; now that he has fallen, am 
greatly tempted to envy him his grave with its honours. 

Of this the most afflicting of all bereavements that has fallen upon his 
wretched and despondent family, what shall I say? Nothing—their grief is too 
saered for description—justice can alone be done to it by those deep and 
silent, but agonizing feelings which on their account pervade every bosom. 


Mr. Van Buren then submitted the following resolution : 


The Delegation from the State of New York to the Senate and House of 
Representatives of the Congress of the United States, having been informed 
of the sudden death of De Witt Clinton, late Governor of that State, feel it 
due to the occasion, as well as to their own feelings, to unite with the people 
_ they represent, in expressing their deep and sincere sorrow for a dispensation 
_ of Providence which has, in the midst of active usefulness, cut off from the 
service of that State, whose proudest ornament he was, a great man, who 
, 


| 


has won and richly deserved the reputation of a distinguished public bene- 
factor. 
Sensibly impressed with respect for the memory of the illustrious dead, they 
will wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty days; and they request 
that a copy of these, their proceedings, be communicated to the family of the 
_ deceased, with an assurance of their condolence at the greatest bereavement 
; that could:have befallen them on this side the grave. 


After a lapse of more than a quarter of a century and after hav- 
ing enjoyed the highest political distinctions Inown to our system, 
I can truly say that I feel upon the subject now as I expressed my- 
self then. 

Mr. Clinton’s political advancement did not realize either the antic- 
ipations of his early friends or perhaps his own expectations. But 
he left traces upon the times in which he lived which were made 
indelible by his connection with the great Public Work of his pe- 
riod—the Erie Canal. In all the relations of private life his con- 
duct and character were, if not faultless, certainly without just 
_ reproach. His social habits for a season excited the apprehensions 
_ of his friends and were made the subject of unfavorable censure 


before he died. His talents are admitted to have been of a high 
order and were favorably exhibited in his writings; his speeches 
also were carefully and well constructed but delivered in an awk- 
ward and unimpressive manner. He never enjoyed extensive popu- 


to acquire it, and the failure of his efforts in that direction has beep 
_ variously accounted for. His official communications were filled, 
sometimes overloaded, with expositions and recommendations of 
“measures which he thought calculated to subserve public and ad- 


168 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
J 


ners, but when the limited extent of his personal intercourse with 
the People is considered the correctness of this interpretation of re- 
sults so diffused may well be doubted. 


In this matter of personal popularity the working of the publit 


mind is often inscrutable. In one respect only does it appear to be 
subject to rule, namely in the application of a closer scrutiny by the 
People to the motives of public men than to their actions. When 
one is presented to them possessed of an ardent temperament who 
adopts their cause, as they think, from sympathy and sincerely re- 
gards their interests as his own, they return sympathy for sympathy 
with equal sincerity and are always ready to place the most favorable 
constructions upon his actions and slow to withdraw their confidence 
however exceptionable his conduct in many respects may be. But 
when a politician fails to make this impression—when they on the 
contrary-are led to regard him as one who only takes the popular side 
ef public questions from motives of policy their hearts seem closed 
against him, they look upon his wisest measures with distrust, and are 
apt to give him up at the first adverse turn in his affairs. The 
process by which they arrive at one or the other of these conclusions 
is not easily described. Feeling has of course more to do with it 
than reason, yet, tho’ sometimes wrong, it must be admitted that 


they are much oftener right in their discriminations. Jefferson and 


Jackson were favorites of the character I have described, and justly 
so. Clinton was not. For his conduct in regard to the Erie Canal 
he received from the public all the credit to which he was entitled 
notwithstanding the unfavorable criticisms that were made as to his 
motives—criticisms of which we would not have heard if that great 
public service had been rendered by either of the statesmen I have 
referred to. A striking illustration of the truth of this view was 
furnished by the fact that when he was for the last time a candidate 
for popular suffrages he was not as well supported by the people on 
the line of the Erie Canal (making allowances for their political 
preferences) as his competitor, a young man who had rendered no aid 
to that great enterprise deserving to be mentioned in comparison 
with his own. j 


eS >, 


ee seer FY ae 


2” ~* a tel -* 


CHAPTER XV. 


Circumstances occurred in the summer of this year which from 
their bearing upon a great public question are deserving of notice. 
The annual petition of the manufacturers to Congress for increased 
protection, presented at the previous session, resulted in the report 
of what was called the ° Woollens’ Bill. Having promised to accom- 
pany a friend on a visit to the Congressional Cemetery, I was absent 
from the Senate when the Bill was reached and rejected by the cast- 
ing vote of Vice President Calhoun. My absence was assumed to 
have been intentional and was made the ground for the usual news- 
paper vituperation, according to which my delinquency was greatly 
aggravated by my accompanying Gen. Hamilton and Col. Drayton 
to South Carolina at the close of the session. Whilst at Charleston 
I received a letter from Comptroller Marcy urging my immediate 
return to arrest the use that our opponents were making of the ma- 
terials with which I had thus supplied them. Having had some 
experience of his propensity to croak, and being withal not ready to 
comply with his unreasonable request, I replied that if my standing 
at home was not sufficient to protect me against such assaults it was 
not worth preserving and that I should not hasten my return for 
such a purpose. On my way homewards I learned at West Point 
from a reliable authority that the Tariff champion Mallary had in- 
formed his friends that it was the intention of the Protectionists to 
denounce my course at a State Tariff Convention which was to meet 
at Albany within a week or two, and that my old friend the Patroon’ 
had agreed to preside at the meeting. I immediately determined to 
face the assemblage and to speak for myself, but without communi- 
cating my intention to a single friend. 

To the very able exposition of the system and the persistent 
assaults upon its injustice and impolicy by the New York Evening 
Post, the country is more indebted for its final overthrow, in this 
state at least, than to any other single influence. 

On the morning of the Tariff meeting at the Capitol I sent for 
my friends Benjamin Knower and Charles E. Dudley, and for the 
first time informed them of my intentions and asked them to accom- 
pany me. They vehemently remonstrated against the proposed 


5 ? and told me that they had been reliably informed of the inten- 


° MS. II, p. 40. i Stephen Van Rensselaer. 
169 


PA 


170 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, ee 
e 


Woollens Bill,’ and that altho’ there would be many of my political 
friends at the meeting, a very large majority would be enemies who 
would avail themselves of my presence to make the proceeding more 
humiliating. I agreed with their opinion as to the meditated as- 
sault, but observed that it would not be contained in the Report 
of the Committee, as well to save the feelings of my friends at the 
Commencement as because the managers would know that Gen. Van 
Rensselaer would not make himself a party to such a Report by a 
Committee of his appointing, and that as the censure, for these rea- 
sons, would doubtless be reserved for a motion to amend, at the 
close of the proceedings, if I could unexpectedly appear before them 
after the organization of the meeting I would take my chance for 
what was done afterwards. They still objected, but were of course 
willing to go with me, and after ascertaining, by a messenger dis- 
patched for that purpose, that the assemblage was organized for its 
work we repaired to the Capitol. 

My appearance occasioned evident surprise. The good Patroon 
who presided asked me to take a seat by his side, which I respect- 
Tully declined, and chose an eligible position in the crowd. At 


\, the end of every speech the eyes of the assemblage were directed 
“towards me, but I waited until every one had spoken who desired to 


do so, and I then addressed the meeting for nearly two hours. Some 


of the speeches previousty made contained or insinuated enough to © 


justify me in regarding myself as accused of delinquency in the 
matter of the Woollens Bill and thus to open the whole subject. 
I was listened to throughout with silent but respectful attention. 
During the whole time my friend Knower sat directly before and 
with his eyes fixed upon me, and when I spoke of the injustice 
that had been done to me he was so much moved as to attract the 
attention of the meeting. He was then extensively engaged in the 
purchase of wool, but being a Republican of the old school and 
withal a singularly upright man and sincere friend, those fine qual- 
ities had not yet been affected by the ardent pursuit of money. At 
a later period he separated from many of his early friends, myself 
among the rest, in consequence of their anti-tariff opinions, but a 


short time before his death he addressed me a letter replete with — 


the sentiments and the spirit of his best days. 

At the close of my speech Mr. J. Townsend a son-in-law of Judge 
Spencer and a rich manufacturer, expressed a desire to pass a vote of 
thanks to me for it, but some of his more sagacious associates, who 
did not think as favorably of its probable effect, interfered and over- 
ruled him. The meeting dissolved without anything being further 


*A bill for the “Alteration of the acts imposing duties on imports ” introduced Jan. 
27, 1827, by Rollin C, Mallary, of Vermont, and designed to amend the tariff of 1824. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 171 
= 


said or done, and we moved down State Street from the Capitol 
with every indication of exultation on the part of my friends at its 
dénouement, and of dejection on the other side. 

Mr. Knower came to me in the evening and told me that, on his 
way home from the Capitol, Mr. Wood, one of his wool buyers 
and a sensible man, said to him—‘ Mr. Knower! that was a very 
able speech!” “Yes, very able!” he answered. “Mr. Knower!” 
again said Mr. Wood, after a considerable pause,—* on which side 
of the Tariff question was it?” ° “That is the very point I was 1 
thinking about when you first spoke to me, Mr. Wood!” replied (” 
Knower. 

I have frequently been told and have always believed that I ren- 
dered much service to the cause of truth by that speech, but this 
conversation between two intelligent and interested men would 
seem to indicate that directness on all points had not been its most 
prominent feature. 

In the course of my remarks I had referred to the fact, by way 
of putting myself in good company, that the Chairman of the 
Meeting, my. very good friend the Patroon, had been also absent 
from his seat in the House of Representatives when the Woolen’s 
Bill passed that body. The recollection of this fact, and especially 
my reference to it, had made him quite uneasy in a position which, 


as I understood, he had promised, even before he left Washington, 


to occupy altho’ he had not been apprised of the intention to assail 
me. In the evening, being desirous to see how he had relished 
the proceedings, I proposed to Gen. Thomas Pinckney, of South 
Carolina, who had called upon me, a visit to the Manor House. 


“We found Gen. Van Rensselaer in the act of giving Mrs. Van Rens- 


selaer an account of the meeting and our arrival created an em- 
barrassment, unpleasantly obvious to both of us, that made me 
regret that we had interrupted him. 

I had sustained the protective policy by my votes and speeches 
under instructions of the Legislature, but the more I became ac- 
quainted with its true character and with the views of its advocates 
the more my repugnance to it became strengthened. Compelled to 
regard it is a system equally unwise and illiberal, kept on foot by 
politicians to secure the support of a class of men whose selfish 
appetite increased by indulgence, I became sincerely solicitous for 
its overthrow; but experience having shewn that it had acquired, by 
the plausible pretences upon which it was sustained, a hold upon the 
public mind which could only be loosened by degrees and by means 
which would not rouse the prejudices of its supporters, I determined 
to assail it in that form. Whatever may be thought of the morality 


° MS, II, p. 45, 


172 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


of such a conclusion it was to my mind quite clear that an obstinate 
error like this, fostered by positive private gains to a busy few and 
promises of individual advantages to large and influential classes 
could in no other way be successfully combatted, and I considered it 
a case in which the end would justify means so little exceptionable. 
President Jackson pursued a similar course, and, as I Inow, for 
similar reasons, in his Maysville Veto. The great influence which 
that Message exerted in overthrowing the entire system of Internal 
Improvement by the Federal Government, altho’ it was only directed 
against a part, is universally conceded. How much was done to- 
wards correcting public sentiment on the subject of high tariffs in our 
state by the course I pursued, it is not for me to say. Governor 
Marcy, who will not, by those who knew him, be remembered as a 
flatterer even of his best friends notwithstanding this instance of 
exaggerated praise, in a letter to me some months after this period, 
referring to his solicitude as to the political effect that must be pro- 
duced by the tariff feeling and his apprehension that it had disturbed 
his relations with Mr. Wright, wrote as follows: 

There was last spring a more than half formed opinion that you was hostile 
to the Tariff; this opinion was settling down into a conviction accompanied with 
some excitement and was doing (or rather was about to) infinite mischief to 
the cause of Genl Jackson in this State, when, at the most auspicious moment 
that political sagacity ever selected, and by the most successful effort that 
talent ever made, you destroyed in the speech you made at the Capitol all the 
works which long premeditated mischief had contrived, and the industry of 
political enemies had been many months employed, to raise up for the prostra- 
tion of yourself and the cause you had espoused. 


In every subsequent National canvass until my final retirement 
from public life my Woollen’s Speech (as it was called) was made 
a prominent subject of a partizan agitation. It was denounced by 
my opponents at the South as proof of my being a Protectionist and 
by those at the North as proof of my hostility to the system. So fre- 
quent and continued were the applications for explanations that I 
was obliged to have an edition of the speech published for the benefit 
of my friends at the South. At the north its drift and design were 
- soon understood and in the end favorably appreciated. 

In the fall of this year Thomas Addis Emmett was seized with 
paralysis whilst engaged in the trial of a cause, and died almost im- 
mediately. I was one of the opposing counsel in the cause, and as 
the court adjourned on the preceding day he [Emmett] expressed to 
me his surprise that we had kept our suit—the claim of Bishop 
Inglis, of Nova Scotia, to the immense estate called the Sailor’s Snug 
Harbor—on foot so long, but added that we could not prolong its life 


1Message of May 27, 1830, with veto of bill authorizing a subscription of stock in 
the Maysville, Washington, Paris and Lexington Turnpike Company. 

2This letter, Marcy to Van Buren, 1828, Jan. 29, is the Van Buren Papers in the 
Library of Congress. 


a 


rer : 


aie i " ih oh se 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 173 


- beyond twelve o’clock of the next day. When that time arrived I 


followed him from the bar to the stove, whither he had been called by 
an acquaintance, and said “ Well, Mr. Emmett, the hour has come and 
we are alive yet!” “ Yes,” he answered—‘ but you cannot live much 
longer!” Immediately after my return to my seat David B. Ogden 
said to me “ Look at Emmett! He is going to have a fit!” I looked 
end replied that it was a mistake. In a few moments he repeated 
the alarm more emphatically. I-went to Chief Justice Thompson, 
before whom the cause was tried, and informed him of Mr. Ogden’s 
suspicions. The Judge observed Mr. Emmett closely, and replied 
pleasantly “No! No! Ogden is mistaken—his under lip hangs a 
little lower than usual, but that is natural to him when he is writ- 
ing!” At that instant and as I turned towards my seat I saw Mr. 
Emmett reel in his chair and extend his hand towards a neighbour- 
ing pillar. I endeavoured to intercept his fall but without success; 
he was carried to his house and died in a few hours.? 

I had considerable professional intercourse with Mr. Emmett, 
admired his talents, and always found him liberal, honorable and 
just. His conduct and character as a public man are known to the 
country. He soon lived down the censures and hatred which pur- 
sued him in his emigration and were for a season troublesome, and 
died universally lamented as an honest man and faithful citizen. 

There were circumstances in the life of my ill fated friend 
Samuel A. Talcott, connected with the same trial in the course of 
which Mr. Emmett died, which lead me to take here a brief notice 
of his brilliant yet melancholy career. About the year 1819 I 
chanced to see a number of articles in a western newspaper criticis- 
ing and censuring my course in regard to a public question, the 
marked ability of which caused me to make enquiries in respect to 
their paternity. I soon ascertained that they were written by Mr. 
Talcott, a young federal lawyer of Oneida County whom I had 
never seen. Happening afterwards to be on the same boat with him, 
on our way to attend the Supreme Court at New York, I sought and 
made his acquaintance, and finding him undetermined, on our ar- 
rival, where to lodge, I invited him to accompany me to the Parke 
Place Hotel where I usually staid, to which he consented. The 
house being very full I ordered a bed in my room for his temporary 
accommodation. This arrangement led to frequent conversations 
which impressed me with the highest opinion of his character and 
intellectual endowments. I told him one day, between jest and 
earnest, that he was misplaced in the political field, and that he 
ought to be on our side. At the moment I had not the least idea 
that any consequence would flow from the remark, but I soon dis- 


1 Nov. 27, 1827. 


174 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 0 rare aa 


covered that he had thought seriously upon the subject, and was 
desirous to talk farther with me about it. I gave him a very un- 
reserved account of my own political opinions and, as far as I un- 
derstood them, of those of the mass of my party, and pointed out 
to him the reasons why his chances for fame and public usefulness 
would be increased by joining us; but advised him at the same time 
to come to no hasty conclusion—to think the matter over deliber- 
ately at home, and, if he found his way so clear as to afford a 
reasonable confidence that the change when made would be satis- — 
factory and permanent, to make it—if not, to stay where he was, : 
for I had too much respect for him to wish him to adopt a time 
serving policy. : 

Some weeks after this I received a letter from him informing 
me of his intention to attend a democratic meeting and to avow 
his adhesion to our party and that I might rest assured that he 
had not come to the conclusion without a solemn resolution that 
in politics as it was his first so it would be his last change. | 

His great talents soon made him conspicuous in our ranks and 
as early as the year 1821 he was appointed Attorney General of 
the State in the place of my successor in that office Thomas J. 
Oakley. The selection of so young a man and so recent a con- 
vert from the federal side drew down considerable censure upon the — 
Council of Appointment from disappointed candidates and their 
friends and not a small portion of it was diverted against myself 
on the suspicion, better founded than usual, that I had exerted — 
myself in his favor. I felt no uneasiness about this, as I was cer- 
tain that it would soon satisfy all disinterested friends that it was 
the best selection that could have been made. This he accomplished 
in a short time and very thoroughly, and whilst the man, who had 
busied himself in an unavailing effort to get up a Legislative meet- 
ing to denounce us for making a federal appointment, himself joined 
the other side, young Talcott attained a solid popularity in our 
party and an eminent professional standing. a 

But these bright prospects were destined to be early blasted by 
habits of intemperance, which grew upon him with fearful rapidity, 
and filled the hearts of his friends with sorrow. The wane of his 
professional fortunes, before his fall, was protracted by the respect 
which he inspired as a man and by the admiration which he com- 
pelled by his remarkable professional talents and aequirements. 
After the fell disease had made great progress his clients, unwilling 
to dispense with his services, often resorted to the expedient of en- 
listing the good offices of some mutual friend to remain with him 
and to keep him for a time from the intoxicating bowl. Many in- 
stances of this were known to me of which I will notice a few. Under 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN, hi 


such training (which he perfectly understood and aided as far as 
his infirm nature would allow) he made an argument in the Su- 
preme° Court of the United States which called forth the strongest 
applause of Chief Justice Marshall and all his brethren, greatly 
excited a numerous and intelligent audience and attracted the atten- 
tion of the country to an almost unprecedented extent. 

In a very important trial between the State of New York and 


=a 


John Jacob Astor, in which Chancellor Kent, Mr. Webster and my- 
_ self were employed as Counsel on behalf of the State, and Mr. Tal- 
; cott represented it as Attorney General, it became necessary to have 
_ a consultation in regard to several difficult questions of law which 
; arose in the case. We agreed to meet at the Chancellor’s office in 


Greenwich street, and Mr. Talcott was to call for me on his way 
down to the appointed rendezvous. When he arrived at my room 
I was shocked to find that he was very much intoxicated and taking 
his arm I led him past Rector street, down which lay our direct 
route, as far as the Battery, and there walked with him to and fro 
for a long time and beyond the hour fixed for our meeting. When 
in one of our turns we came to the gate which was nearest the 
Chancellor’s residence, he looked me in the face and, expressing by 
a smile his consciousness of my object, said—“I think it will do 
now!” “Well,” I replied, “if you think so we will go!” 

The other gentlemen had been waiting for us and he at once pro- 
ceeded, as his official station required, to state the several questions 
in their order, the difficulties of each, and the manner in which he 
thought it best to deal with them. He did this in so full, able and 
vivid a manner, as to leave us nothing to do but to adopt his recom- 
mendations. After he left us to fulfill an appointment, the Chan- 
cellor and Mr. Webster expressed very earnestly their admiration 
of the general accuracy of his views, the simple power of his lan- 
guage, and his extraordinary familiarity with questions as abstruse 
and difficult as any in legal science. They referred also with deli- 
cacy and obvious sincerity to their regret at hearing of the un- 
favorable impressions which existed in regard to his habits, but 

-not one of them dreamed of the narrow escape they had just had 
_ from an exhibition of them. 

_ In the suit on the trial of which Emmett fell, which was, as I have 
_ mentioned, an action brought by Bishop Inglis of Nova Scotia for 
_ the recovery of real estate in the city of New York, even then of 
_ great value and now worth several millions of dollars, Talcott was 
_ one of his associate counsel. The Bishop claimed as heir at law of 
the last.owner, Mr. Randall, and the defendant claimed under his 
_ will, by which the whole property was devised as a charity for the 
_ support and comfort of aged and infirm seamen. We contested this 


° MS. II, p. 50. 


a a id ee AT Di PT rs ae eS me has 


“— 
176 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. ‘ 


devise as illegal and had, for reasons not necessary to be stated here, 
satisfied ourselves that if we could obtain possession of the property 
we would have no difficulty in maintaining it. During the early 
stages of the trial, Talcott was in an unfit state to come into court, 
and his associates under the lead of Emmett, desirous to avoid the 
issue on the validity of the devise, had for several days managed 
the defence in a way which shewed a determination to rely on their 
possession as a sufficient bar to our claim. On the day before the 
sad occurrence that filled us all with sorrow, Talcott walked into court, 
looking fresh and well, and took his seat among his associates. 
After some conversation between them Mr. Emmett asked the indul- 
gence of the Court while they retired for consultation, and gave as a 
reason that they had until that moment been deprived of the assist- 
ance of Mr. Talcott by his indisposition. As they walked out I said 
to Mr. Ogden, my associate, that I was quite sure that Talcott would 
induce them to produce the will, but he thought that the opposite 
policy had been too firmly settled. The first thing after their return 
was Mr. Emmett’s offering the will in evidence. 

We were defeated and I had the curiosity immediately after the 
trial was ended to ask the Chief Justice what he would have thought 
of the cause if they had not introduced the will. He replied that, 
assuming from the course pursued by the defendant’s counsel that 
they did not mean to rely upon it, he had considered the cause in 
that light, and had come to a very decided conclusion that they 
could not prevent our recovery on the strength of their possession. 
I have therefore ever thought that the chances were at least equal 
that if Talcott had not come into court that large estate would 
have gone in a different direction. 

Within an hour after the fall of Mr. Emmett I took a long walk 
with Talcott and pressed upon his attention the vacancy in the pro- 
fession naw certain to be created in New York by Mr. Emmett’s 
death, and the fact that he was the most able man in the state to 
fill it. After talking some time I paused and added that there 
was but one obstacle to his success, and that he must understand 
what I alluded to. He said he did weld understand! I exclaimed 
with vehemence—‘ is it not possible to remove that?”—to which 
he answered characteristically, “I can try!” He moved to the city 
and endeavoured to break the hold of his insidious enemy, but in 


vain. In the course of a few years he became an inmate of the - 
Hospital for the Insane where he died. Thus perished, alas! how ~ 


ingloriously, a mind of the highest order; a counsellor of well earned 


and brilliant distinction—the best black-letter lawyer I ever knew—; 


a man of the purest personal character and friend the most sin- 
cere. 


4 


CHAPTER XVI. 


Of the action of the Federal Government during the adminis- 
tration of Mr. Monroe I have nothing farther to say, but I cannot 
; pass without noticing two visits I made to Virginia during his 
last term, the incidents of which were interesting to me and the 
relation of them may be somewhat so to others. _It seems unavoid- 
able in writings of this kind to make oneself to a great extent 
the hero of the narrative, although the offensive intrusion of “the 
eternal I” is as disagreeable to me as it can be to the reader. I 
doubt not that when Mr. Jefferson feelingly exclaims in his auto- 
biography, that he is tired of speaking of himself, he disclosed 
the true reason why that work was not continued to its proper 
termination: and I am continually tempted by the same induce- 
ment to bring my story to an abrupt close. 

I paid my first visit to Mount Vernon on the invitation of J udge 
Bushrod Washington to spend Christmas with him, accompanied 
by Gen. C. F. Mercer who had been the bearer of the invitation. 
A closer acquaintance confirmed my impressions of the purity of 
the Judge’s character, and I was agreeably surprised by the vi- 
vacity of his disposition. His mental qualifications were of a highly 
respectable order, and united to the simplicity and frankness of 
his manners made his society peculiarly agreeable, and his cordial 
hospitality assisted by the Herberts,) Mrs. Washington’s nephews 
who besides their other accomplishments sang remarkably well, 
made ours a merry Christmas. Mrs. Washington had been a long 
time bed-ridden, but the singing drew her to the head of the stair 
case and it was delightful to see how much this circumstance ex- 
cited the Judge’s sensibilities and added to the general hilarity. 
In the course of the evening we availed ourselves of the fine weather 
to take a stroll on the lawn, and leaving the young people to their 
_ amusements he led the way to a covered walk in the adjoining 
grove. I spoke of the extent to which my interest in the beautiful 
_ scene about us was enhanced by the associations, to which he as- 
sented and added that my observation reminded him of an occasion 
when he paced that walk as we were now doing, but with a more 
__ troubled heart. 

“I received” said he, “a letter from the General” (his invari- 
_ able synonym for his uncle) “in the spring before his death re- 


1Judge Washington’s nephews, Bushrod W. and Noblet Herbert. 
127483°—vor 2—20. aly 177 


178 © AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 


questing Mr. Marshall, as he always called the future Chief Justice, 
and myself to come to Mount Vernon. The court was sitting and — 
a compliance with his request of course inconveninent, but it never — 
occurred ° to either of us to postpone his business to our own. Our 
brethren of the bar readily acquiesced in a postponement of our 
causes, and we started, as was the fashion of the time, on horseback — 
and with no other wardrobe that what we carried on our persons. 
I mention the latter circumstance because of an accident to which — 
equestrians are peculiarly liable, having occurred to Mr. Marshall, © 
which frequently exposed to view the nether extremity of his shirt, — 
causing infinite amusement on the j journey and much embarrassment q 
at Mount Vernon. On our arrival in the evening, the General took 
me into the library and informed me that he wished Mr. Marshall 
and myself to offer for Congress at the approaching election—Mr. 
Marshall for Henrico district and myself for Westmoreland. As I 
resided in Richmond, altho’ my property lay in Westmoreland, 
it might be safest, he said, to make a partial removal there to satisfy 
the law, which could not give me much trouble. 

“Having explained his wishes and briefly assigned his reasons 
he desired me to break the matter to Mr. Marshall so that he could” 
have our answer at supper. I called Mr. Marshall out, and on this 
walk we had our consultation. We had of course the strongest 
possible desire to conform to the General’s wishes, but could not 
bring our minds to any other conclusion than that to do so in this” 
instance would be destructive of our prospects in the pursuit we 
preferred, and injurious to our families. Altho’ it was not so with 
Marshall, I was myself deeply conscious of an unfitness for politi- 
cal life. It was made my duty to state our objections to the Gen- 
eral which I did very earnestly. He heard me through without 
interruption, and then answered in his usual grave and emphatic 
way—* Bushrod, it must be done!” With this IL returned to my 
friend, still lingering in this grove in painful suspense. We re- 
cape our walk and finally agreed that me must comply with the 
General’s wishes at all hazards. We returned to him and informed 
him of our assent to his proposition. He expressed his satisfaction 
in very kind terms and said that he was sensible of the inconvenience 
to which a compliance with his views might subject us, but was 
certain that he had asked nothing from us which he would not have. 
done himself if our situations had been reversed. We left Mount 
Vernon early in the morning and returned to Richmond with feel- 
ings of great anxiety. 

“T had entered upon the steps deemed advisable to qualify myself 
to represent Westmoreland when I received a letter from the Secre- 


° MS. II, p. 55. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 179 


tary of State informing me that President Adams had appointed me 
one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, and 
I was advised by the same letter that a circuit court was to be held 
in Georgia in so short a time that it would be necessary to start im- 
_ mnediately for that state if I accepted the office. I took the official 
_ oath immediately, threw myself into the stage coach, proceeded to 
_ Georgia and informed the General from that place of what I had 
done and my reasons for doing it.” 

General Washington died in the month of December in the same 
‘year Marshall offered for the Henrico district, was elected and 
made his justly admired speech in defence of the administration for 
its course in the case of Jonathan Robbins, which raised him at once 
_ to the first rank in that body. He was appointed Secretary of State 
by Mr. Adams, on the removal of Timothy Pickering, and, just before 
the end of his term, Chief Justice of the United States, 
_ I listened to the Judge’s narrative with interest but with a painful 
‘sense of the danger to which it showed that Gen. Washington had 
been exposed of becoming involved in the conflicts of party, at that 
“moment as violent as they have ever been,—a danger from which, 
in the inscrutable providence of God, he had been withdrawn by an 
early and otherwise premature death. No man entertained a sounder 
sense of what belonged to his position, possessed more self command 
or could be more ready to sacrifice personal feelings to the public 
good than Gen. Washington. These high traits had all been strik- 
irgly exhibited in the course of the trying years of his administration, 
as Well as in his subsequent retirement. Nor was it possible that any 
extent of personal irritation could ever bring his mind to sanction 
public measures that he did not conscientiously believe would be 
_ beneficial to the country. He was yet a man, and as such subject 
to some extent to the passions and infirmities of his nature. and the 
State of his feelings described by Judge Washington at a period and 
_ under circumstances so inauspicious to their continued restraint, gives 
us reason to apprehend that had he lived longer his wise and self 
imposed reserve would have been farther and farther relaxed until 
_ he would have become more deeply involved in the angry conflicts 
of party than was to be desired in one who at that moment possessed, 
with rare if any exception, the warm affections and the respect of the 
whole country. 
_ Who can think without pain upon the consequences of his with- 
- drawal from that enviable position which made the sacred appella- 
tion of Father of his Country so acceptable to all his countrymen 
and the loss of which would have robbed not only our History but 


_#tuman Nature itself of one of the brightest glories of both. Who 


2 December 14, 1799, 


180 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


that has been enabled to comprehend the violence of party spirit— 
to know that the influences neither of religion nor of kindred nor of | 
any other earthly relation or situation have sufficient strength to 
avert animosities or denunciations between partizan belligerents, can — 
regret that Washington’s fair fame was snatched from farther ex-— 
posure to that fiery ordeal, or can hesitate to acknowledge that the 
goodness of Providence which had, for his own and his Country’s — 
welfare, directed all his actions iene his most useful and bela 
life, was scarcely less signally displayed in his death. 


ae 


CHAPTER XVII. 


In the course of the winter of 1824, preceding the Presidential elec- 


tion, Ninian Edwards, one of the Senators in Congress from the 


state of Illinois, set in motion the famous A. B. plot, by causing to 
be published in the “Washington Republican,” newspaper, several 
articles signed with those initials, in which Mr. Crawford was 
charged with culpable mismanagement of the public funds at dif- 


_ ferent and remote points in the Western Country. Having thus 


sown his seed, he obtained from Mr. Monroe the appointment of 
Minister to Mexico, and after the nomination had been confirmed 
and his commission delivered him, he sent to the Speaker of the 
House of Representatives copies of those articles, with a letter avow- 


_ ing himself the author of them and affirming that the charges they 
~ contained could be supported by legal proofs if the House directed 


their investigation. At this stage in the proceedings and a short 


time before the close of the session he started on his Mission, as- 


suming from the nature of his charges and the remoteness of the 


_ places from which the testimony was to be obtained that the mat- 
_ ter could only be acted on in the recess, and intending that Mr. 


Crawford’s friends instead of giving their attention to the election 
should find their time engrossed for the few months which yet re- 


_ mained before it was to take place in defending him before a commit- 
tee of investigation. 


Governor Floyd of Virginia, a political friend of Mr. Crawford, 
moved instantly for such a committee, and one was selected by Mr. 
Speaker Clay (himself a rival candidate) with equal delicacy and 
discretion. It was composed of seven of the most respectable mem- 
bers of the House, viz: Gov. Floyd, and Mr. Randolph, of Virginia, 


_and Mr. Owen, of Alabama, friends of Crawford, Daniel Webster 
and John W. Tayler, supporters of Adams, Edward Livingston, who 


was in favor of Gen. Jackson, and °Gen. McArthur, of Ohio, a 


friend of Clay. 


The public mind was greatly shocked by the ruthlessness of the 
attack and was prepared to find it unfounded ag well because of the 
conduct and reputation of its author as of Mr. Crawford’s exemplary 
character. The Committee seemed similarly impressed and entered 


‘upon the immediate investigation and conducted it throughout in a 
“spirit and with a degree of impartiality that reflected the highest 


Saree eee 


° MS. II, p. 60. 
18] 


182 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


honor upon themselves and upon the Speaker ~by whan they had! 
been selected. Mr. Crawford was at the time confined by a disease 
which had brought him to death’s door and deprived him almost 
entirely of the use of his eyes during the whole investigation. His 
friends were of course ready to render any assistance not inconsistent — 
with the proprieties of their positions, but the laboring oar was in — 
the hands of his Chief Clerk, Asbury Dickins, who discharged his 
duties with fidelity and consummate ability. The Defence, which was — 
almost altogether prepared by Dickins, drew forth loud and earnest — 
applause from friends and foes. Whilst it left no matter of fact or 
argument unattended to, it did not contain a single harsh comment 
upon the conduct of Mr. Crawford’s accuser, a feature which I was 
very desirous it should possess and to which I took some pains to 
reconcile our friends who were naturally excited and justly indig-— 
nant. 
The Committee immediately despatched the Sergeant at Arms — 
after Edwards, who pursued him fifteen hundred miles on his way — 
to Mexico. Edwards had left the prosecution of the case in the 
hands of his son-in-law, Mr. Cook, then a member of Congress, and 
holding in his hands the vote of Illinois upon the Presidential ques- 
tion in the House—where it was almost certain it would have to 
be decided, and with the cunning and unscrupulousness which char- 
acterised all his actions in the matter he evidently placed great re- 
liance on that circumstance; but in this too he was disappointed. 
The Committee satisfied themselves of the utter falsity of the charges 
before Edward’s return and, to prevent him from injuring Mr. 
Crawford in the public estimation at so critical a period, made and 
published a report,’ in part, exonerating his conduct from the 
slightest impeachment. They however thought it proper to give 
Edwards an opportunity to be heard and to that end adjourned 
to meet again after the close of the session, when he was examined, 
- but proved nothing to change the character of the report which 
was reaffirmed. He resigned his appointment and sank into an 
inglorious retirement. 4 
Our friends being desirous that I should remain at Washington 
until the Committee reassembled, I spent the intervening time after 
the adjournment of Congress in making a visit I had long con- 
templated to Mr. Jefferson, accompanied by Gov. Mahlon Dicker- 
son. Altho’ suffering at the time from the pressure of pecuniary em: 
barrassments, brought upon him by responsibilities incurred for an 
old friend, Mr. Jefferson received us with unaffected cordiality, and 
exerted himself cheerfully and heartily to make our visit agree- 
able. He had known and highly esteemed Gov. Dickerson whe 


1Report of select committee of the House, 18th Cong., 1st sess., vol. 6, No. 128. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 183 


_ he resided at Philadelphia during the most stormy period of the 
administration of John Adams, and he referred in a lively but tol- 
erant spirit to many scenes of those stirring times, in not a few of 
_ which the Governor had himself been an actor,—such as his ac- 
_ companying Dr. Cooper (of whom I have spoken) arm in arm to 
prison upon his conviction under the sedition law, altho’ at the time 
Recorder of the City,—and to various exciting articles which had 
_ appeared in the Awrora, newspaper, supposed to have been written 
by Gov. Dickerson. The gratification of the latter in finding the 
most interesting events of his early political life thus brought step 
by step under a sort of commendatory review was unconcealed and 
pleasant to witness. On the next and subsequent days, leaving the 
Governor to be entertained by our host’s grand-daughter, an ac- 
complished and very agreeable young lady, now Mrs. Coolidge 
_ of Boston, (whose future husband paid his first visit to her while 
we were at Monticello) we employed our mornings in drives about 
_ the neighbourhood, during which it may well be imagined with 
how much satisfaction I listened to Mr. Jefferson’s conversation. - 
His imposing appearance as he sat uncovered—never wearing his 
_ hat except when he left the carriage and often not then—and the 
"earnest and impressive manner in which he spoke of men and 
_ things, are yet as fresh in my recollection as if they were experiences 
of yesterday. I have often reproached myself for having omitted 
_ to make memoranda of his original and always forcible observa- 
_ tions and never more than at the present moment. Uppermost 
in my mind is the recollection of his exemption from the slightest 
_ remains of party or personal prejudice against those from whom 
_ he had differed during the stormy period of his public life. Those 
who like myself had an opportunity to witness his remarkable free- 
_ dom from the common reproach of political differences would find 
_ it difficult to doubt the sincerity of the liberal views he expressed 
in his Inaugural Address in regard to parties and partisan_con- 
tests. 
_ The bank of the United States was at this time in the plenitude 
_ of its power, and Mr. Jefferson was much disturbed by the sanc- 
tions which its pretentions received from the decisions of the Su- 
-preme Court, under the lead of Chief Justice Marshall, which he 
regarded as tending to the subversion of the republican principles 
_ of the Government. He expressed his belief that the life tenure 
_ of their offices was calculated to turn the minds of the Judges in 
_ that direction, and that the attention of our young men could not 
_ be more usefully employed than in considering the most effectual 
_ protection against the evils which threatened the Country from 


“d 


+Miss Ellen Wayles Randolph, late Mrs, Joseph Coolidge. 


—j., 


184 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 


that source. He spoke of the power of Impeachment with great — 


severity not only asa mockery in itself, but as having exercised an 
influence in preventing a resort to a more thorough remedy, which 
he thought was only to be found in a change in the tenure of the 
judicial office. Annual appointments, as in the New England states, 
were, he thought, the best, but he would be content with four or 
even six years, and trust to experience for future reductions. Fresh 
from the Bar, and to some extent at least under the influence of 
professional prejudices, I remember to have thought his views ex- 
tremely radical, but I have lived to subscribe to their general cor- 
rectness. 

In a speech in the Senate delivered years ago’ I referred to the 
Bank of the United States as having been the great pioneer of con- 
stitutional encroachments, and our subsequent experience haS con- 
firmed the justice of the remark. It is worthy of notice that since 
that Institution has happily ceased to exist we have not only been 
exempted from any such overwhelming pecufiary convulsion as 
those caused by it, but the Supreme Court has occupied itself with 
its legitimate duties—the administration of justice between man and 
man—without being, as formerly, constantly assailed by applica- 
tions for latitudinarian constructions of the constitution in support 
of enormous corporate pretensions. We might, perhaps, have ex- 
pected that in such a calm even Mr. Jefferson’s alarm, if he had lived 
to see it, would at least in some degree have subsided; but this 
state of things can only be expected to last until a similar or equally 
strong interest is brought under discussion of a character to excite — 
the whole country and to enlist the sympathies of a majority of the — 
Court and requiring the intervention of that high tribunal to sus- 
tain its unconstitutional assumptions by unauthorized and unre- 
strained construction. Whether the institution of domestic slavery is 
destined to be such an interest remains to be seen. The experi- 
ence of ages proves that with exceptions too few to impair the rule, 
men can not be held to the performance® of delegated political trust 
without a continued and practical responsibility to those for whose 
benefit it is conferred. The theory of the independence of the Sov- 
ereign in the case of the Judges in England, which we have copied, 
entirely fails when applied to us. There they are rendered inde- 
pendent of the Crown to secure their fidelity to the public against 
the influence of the poWer to which they owe their appointment 
here their life-tenure renders them independent of the People for 
whose service they are appointed. Irresponsible power of itself ex- 


1“ Substance of Mr. Van Buren’s observations in the Senate” [Feb. 12-13, 1828] a 
pamphlet of 16 pp. in which two speeches are welded into one, is in the Van Buren 
Papers. Cf. Congressional Debates. iv. 1: 313, 338. 

° Ms: II, p. 65. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 185 


cites distrust, and sooner or later causes, on the part of its possessor, 
an impatience of popular control and, in the sequel, a desire to coun- 
teract popular will. The only effectual and safe remedy will be to 
amend the constitution so as to make the officd elective, and thus 
compel the Judges, like the incumbents of the Executive and Legis- 
lative departments, to come before the people at stated and reason- 
able periods for a renewal of their commissions. 

The subject of Internal Improvements by the General Government 
was another matter which occupied Mr. Jefferson’s attention and 
caused him much concern. He spoke of it, with some feeling, as a 
mode of wasting the public revenues, without the probability of 
adequate returns, and involving violations of the constitution injuri- 
ous to the interests it professed to advance, and expressed his appro- 
bation of the course I was pursuing in regard to the system in flatter- 
ing terms. 

I derived the highest gratification from observing that his devo- 
tion to the public interest, tho’ an octogenarian and oppressed by 
private griefs, was as ardent as it had been in his palmiest days. 
Standing upon the very brink of the grave, and forever excluded 
from any interest in the management of public concerns that was 
not common to all his fellow citizens, he seemed never to tire in his 
review of the past and in explanations of the grounds of his appre- 
hensions for the future, both obviously for my benefit. In relation 
to himself he was very reserved—taking only the slightest allowable 
notice of his agency in the transactions of which he spoke. Happen- 
ing to notice a volume in his library labelled curtly and emphatic- 
ally—* Lapets ”—I ‘opened it and found its contents to consist en- 
tirely of articles abusive of himself, cut out of the Newspapers; and 
shewing it to him he laughed heartily over the brochure, and said 
that it had been his good fortune thro’ life to be, in an unusual 
degree, indifferent to the groundless attacks to which public men 
were exposed. My inquiries in regard to individuals who had been 
prominent actors on the political stage in his day, were naturally 
as frequent as was’consistent with propriety, and his replies were 
prompt and made with apparent sincerity and absolute fairness. Of 
Gen. Washington and of his memory he invariable spoke with undis- 
guised regard and reverence. The views he took of his political 
character and career are fully stated in his letter to me of the . to 
which I shall have occasion presently to refer. The residence so near 
to each other of two such men, and the change which had taken place 
in their politica] relations presented an irresistible opportunity to 
mischievous busy-bodies, and no effort of theirs or of political rivalry 
or private enmity was omitted to impress Gen. Washington with a 
belief of Mr. Jefferson’s ill will towards him. In speaking to me, in 
_ the letter I have mentioned, of the feelings of the old republicans, 


186 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, _ adi 


himself included, towards Gen. Washington, he uses this eloquent — 
and, on its face, truthful language: 

He lived too short a time after and too much withdrawn from information 
to correct the views into which he had been deluded, and the continued assidu- — 
ities of the party drew him into the vortex of their intemperate career, sep- 
arated him still further from his real friends, and excited him to actions and 
expressions of dissatisfaction which grieved them but could not loosen their 
affection from him. They would not suffer the temporary aberration to 
weigh against the immeasureable merits of his life, and altho’ they tumbled 
his seducers from their places they preserved his memory embalmed in their 
hearts with undiminished love and devotion, and there it forever will remain 
embalmed, in entire oblivion of every temporary thing which might cloud the 
glories of his splendid life.* 

If anything could be required to establish the truth of this state- 
ment in regard to Mr. Jefferson himself’ it would be sufficient to 
refer to the fact that all the great statesmen, his contemporaries, have 
gone hence, and that their papers have been ransacked and pub- 
lished without reserve, as well as his own, by friends and foes, 
and that not a fragment has been found to cast a doubt upon it. 

Observing that in describing party movements he almost always 
said “ The republicans” pursued this course, and “Hamilton ” that— 
not naming the federalists as a party, except by the designation of 
a sole representative, I brought this peculiarity to his attention. He — 
said it was a habit that he had fallen into at an early period from — 
regarding almost every party demonstration during the adminis- 
trations preceding his own, as coming directly or indirectly from 
Hamilton. He spoke of hi frequently and always without pre- 
judice or ill will, regarding him as a man of generous feelings and 
sincere in his solencal opinions. In answer to my question whether 
Hamilton participated in some step that he condemned, he replied— 
“No! He was above such things!” His political principles Mr. 
Jefferson condemned without reserve, save only their sincerity, re- 
garding them in their tendency and effects as more anti-republican 
a those of any of his contemporaries. 

r. Jefferson’s account of the humble position from which Pat- 
re et raised himself to eminence and the limited means of 
education and study with which he had been able to make a never 
to be forgotten impression upon the age in which he lived, inter- 
ested me exceedingly. He described his agency in facilitating Mr. 
Henry’s admission to the Bar, which was, in substance, that hap- 
pening to be in the vicinity of the residence of Mr. Henry who — 
was then a clerk in a small country store, the latter called upon 
him and asked him to use his influence with Mr. Wythe and Mr. | 


14 signed draft of this letter, dated Juné 29, 1824, by Jefferson, is in the Jefferson 
Papers, Library of Congress. Ser. 1, v. 14, 298. 


Wala ery Fes ee ey, ee eee we amy 


ae) 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 187 


Pendleton to induce them to unite with him in giving a certificate 
of qualification which was necessary to enable Mr. Henry to pro- 
cure a license to practice law. In reply to Mr. Jefferson’s enquiry 
in regard to the extent of his legal studies, Henry acknowledged 
that it was but very recently that he had resolved to ask admission 
to the Bar, and that he had not as yet opened a law book, but 
offered to pledge his honor that he would not practice until he 
had pursued the proper course of study. It was upon that assur- 
ance that they consented to give him a certificate, and Mr. Jefferson 
added that such was Henry’s aversion to reading that he did not 
believe that he had ever read the whole of any book! Taking up 
a volume of Blair’s lectures, one day at Monticello, and glancing over 
a page or two, Henry exclaimed “this is a very sensible book and 
if you will lend it to me IJ think I will read it.” On his returning 
it months afterwards Mr. Jefferson, as a matter of curiosity, asked 
him whether he had read it through, and he acknowledged that he 
had not. In Mr. Jefferson’s Autobiography, published by Congress, 
will be found a statement of similar import. Yet such was the 
strength and acuteness of his intellectual powers and so impressive 
and efficient his native eloquence, that of all the able men of whom 
Virginia then boasted there was not one whose speeches produced 
as great effect as did those of Patrick Henry. Mr. Jefferson did 


- full justice to his services in the Legislature during the Revolu- 


tionary War, and in the State Convention for the adoption of the 
Federal Constitution, and° described to me the singular effects 
produced by some of his addresses to juries. When the eminent 
position he attained as an orator as well at the Bar as in the public 
councils is considered in connection with the circumstances under 
which he was admitted to practice (as to the main facts in regard 


_ to which I am certain of having stated them correctly) it presents a 
_ most remarkable illustration of the power of genius unaided by 


education. 
Our host pressed us with much earnestness to remain a few days 
longer, when we proposed to leave, and in reply to my excuse for 


_ returning to Washington, the desire to be in season for the meeting 


x of the A. B. Committee, he said that his experience justified him 
_ in assuring me that a few days would make no difference in that 


respect, as I found to be true enough. When parting from him 


4 he said he would take the liberty of an old man to give us some 
_ advice upon the subject of being in a hurry. The first fifty years 


of his life had been harassed by the habit of thinking it indispensa- 
ble that things should be done at a certain time and engagements 


! 7 kept to the moment; but upon summing up results he had found 


cos. LI, p. <0. 


188 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


that his punctuality had proved a losing business and that in a 
thousand instances things would have gone on rather better if he 
had given himself more latitude, and that subsequently he had 
adopted a different, and as the result had satisfied him, a wiser 
rule. Hoping that we would do likewise he bid us an affectionate 
farewell. In Gov. Dickerson he had met an old friend whom he 
had proved in the times which were then and long afterwards not 
inaptly called the “Reign of Terror,’ and whom he had not ex- 
pected to see again, and for me he, manifested a regard which I 
might safely construe into an approbation of my public course, 
and I could not fail to be highly gratified by such an assurance 
from one whose character, conduct and principles formed my beaw 
édeal of thorough patriotism and accomplished statesmanship. 

I had spoken of a political pamphlet by Timothy Pickering* 
which, as appeared by the newspapers, had just made its appear- 
ance and Mr. Jefferson requested me to send him a copy—which I 
did. A few weeks afterwards I received the letter from him to 
which reference had already been made, and which accompanies 
these memoirs. I am sure that no intelligent mind can peruse it 
without being deeply interested by its graphic views of circum- 
stances and events not generally understood and in which no Amer- 
ican citizen can fail to take the deepest interest. 

I visited the elder Adams, at Quincy, the next summer after I 
was at Monticello, and I do not recollect ever to have seen a more 
striking and venerable figure than he appeared at that day. The 
traces of advanced age were more perceptible in him than in Mr. 
Jefferson, but did not appear to affect him either in mind or body, 
beyond the unavoidable infirmities of the decline of life. He re- 
ceived me kindly, and during the short period that I felt myself 
justified in occupying his attention conversed with uniform good 
sense, and a degree of animation and decision seldom witnessed in 
so old a man. 5 

The Adamses, including that public spirited patriot Samuel 
Adams, were an extraordinary race and made indelible impressions 
on the times in which they lived. John Adams was, in the estima- 


tion of his successful rival, the most effective orator of the Revolu- — 


tion—a post of danger as well as of honor, as was shewn by the ex- 
ception of his name, among others, from the offers of pardon which 
the Crown, from time to time, tendered to her rebellious subjects. 

I need hardly say that his greatness was not without alloy, but 
happily for his country the defects of his character did not affect 


his usefullness until after her independence had been established. 


*A Review of the Correspondence between the Hon. John Adams, late president of the 
United States and the late Wm. Cunningham, esquire * * * by ‘Timothy Pickering. 
(Salem, 1824.) A copy is in the Library of Congress. 


s 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 189 


Whatever these defects may have been, one thing was at all times 
clear, as Dr. Franklin, in a brief sketch of his character (quoted be- 
low and not designed, as a whole, to be particularly complimentary ) 
said, ‘“‘he was always honest,” and so were Samuel and John Quincy 
Adams. Indeed such, to their honor be it said, has, with very rare 
exceptions, been the character of our high public functionaries at all 
periods. In the times of John Adams the political atmosphere had 
been so thoroughly purified by the Revolutionary fires that no man, 
whatever his talent or his services, who was wanting in that the 
first qualification for public trusts could have been sustained for 
a day. Arnold was corrupted by the enemy, and scorn will never 
cease to designate, with her unmoving finger, his infamy. Edmund 
Randolph who possessed the confidence of Washington and Jeffer- 
son, and was appointed by the former Secretary of State when the 
latter resigned, ranking among the highest in personal position and 
in talent, was unhappily exposed to suspicion as to his official integ- 
rity, and he fell at once to rise no more. An attempt was made to 
attach suspicion to the acts of Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of 
the Treasury—as I have heretofore described. We have seen at 
what a sacrifice he vindicated the purity of his official conduct, and 
manifested his sense of the indispensable necessity of such a vindi- 
cation whenever it should be questioned. 

It is always hazardous for one whose judgments are deductions 
from what he reads to pass upon the personal characters of public 
men, yet it is the motive and sincerity with which this is done 
which makes it excusable or otherwise. My own impression has 
always been that Mr. Adams’s subsequent failure in public life 
was, in no considerable degree, owing to an overweening self esteem 
and consequent impatience under honors conferred on his cotem- 
poraries. Frequent exhibitions of this feeling, with—not too high. 
certainly—but perhaps too exclusive an appreciation of his own 
services, were, I cannot but think, among the causes of his un- 
popularity. It was this, doubtless, which gave a feverish character 
to his relations with Dr. Franklin, during their residence in Europe. 
The same causes produced wider and still more injurious effects 
on his return to the United States. The attention of public men, 
engrossed during the War by the enemy, was diverted by the peace 
and more closely directed towards each other, and anticipated 
rivalries doubtless added keenness to those examinations. The 
previous friendly relations between himself and Mr. Jefferson were, 
not improbably, then weakened and suspended: with Hamilton, who 
was himself not deficient in the same quality, he was soon in open 
hostility: he looked down upon Hancock, and an impression was 
made upon the minds of many that he yielded, with less complacency 


190 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 


than the other leading men of his day, to the universal preference 4 
accorded to Washington. These well known circumstances, in con- — 
nection with his after expressed admiration of the English system, — 
always excepting its corruptions, gave rise to the imputation, un- 
doubtedly unjust, that his resistance to the Crown did not arise — 
so much from opposition to Monarchy in the abstract as to a natural — 
preference for the House of Braintree over that of Hanover. 
The election at which he was chosen President passed off without — 
anything like a partizan canvass. , The seeds of future party di- — 
visions had begun to sprout at the seat of Government, but in the 
country at large these divisions were yet unseen and unfelt. The — 
election was suffered to drift to its conclusion without serious ef- 
forts to control its direction. In Mr. Madison’s correspondence 
may be found a letter from Mr. Jefferson, authorizing ° Mr. Madi- 
son to announce to the House of Representatives if the vote proved — 
to be equal, as it nearly turned out to be, as the earnest desire of ~ 
the writer that Mr. Adams might be preferred.t_ Mr. Adams was 
a man of strong feelings and those to which I have particularly 
alluded had lost none of their force by his long previous occupation — 
of an office without patronage or power. Mr. Jefferson tells us that — 
consultations between them on public affairs, tho’ at first invited, — 
were in the end studiously avoided, and we know that his relations — 
with Washington were not free from embarrassment. The latter 
had, as Commander in Chief of the Provisional Army, recommended 
for Major Generals Hamilton, Pinckney and Knox; Mr. Adams 
made the appointments, but was induced, it was supposed by his 
prejudices against Hamilton, to reverse the order by placing Knox ~ 
first and Hamilton, last. Washington, as might have been antici- 
pated, took exception to this arrangement of the names and in- — 
sisted upon the order he had proposed, which was finally adopted. 
I need not say that such a transaction could not pass to its con- — 
summation without offending the feelings of both. 
Of Mr. Adams’ support of the Alien and Sedition laws I have — 
elsewhere spoken. These laws were the legitimate fruits of prin- — 
ciples which Hamilton had instilled into the federal party yet the — 
largest share of public odium they excited fell upon the head of — 
Adams. Divisions arose in that party and Hamilton took ground, — 
covert at first but finally avowed against his reelection. Fearless — 
in spirit and bold in movement the President removed from the — 
office of Secretary of State that remarkable man Timothy Pickering — 
who had been appointed by Washington, but whom he suspected of 
° MS. II, p. 75. < 


+Dec. 17, 1796. In the Madison Papers, Library of Congress. It is printed in Ford’s § 
Works of Jefferson, (N. Y. 1904), v. 8, 254. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 191 


being too much influenced by Hamilton, and threw himself upon 
the country for support. 

_ Public services have their stipulated rewards, and all beyond, 
- the People proudly regard as reserved for free-will offerings. 
i Nothing is so likely to offend and repel their confidence as appeals 
for their support which wear the appearance of claims of right on 
_the part of the applicant. Mr. Adams found it difficult, consti- 
tuted as he was, to make any to which his enemies could not cause 
_ that objection to be plausibly set up. He was consequently never 
_ popular save during the war of the Revolution, when his appeals 
_to the People were for their own interests and defence, and under 
the weight of this personal and administrational unpopularity, 
which his Revolutionary services could not surmount, he not only 
fell himself but drew down upon his party imperishable odium. 

Im a letter from Dr. Franklin to Robert R. Livingston, the Sec- 
_ retary of Foreign Affairs to the Congress, dated “ Passy 22d. July, 
1783,” he alludes to Mr. Adams as follows: 

: ee It is therefore I write this, to put you on your guard (believing 
it my duty, though I know that I hazard by it a mortal enmity) and to cau- 
_ tion you respecting the insinuations of this gentleman against this Court, and 
the instances he supposes of their ill will to us, which I take to be as imaginary 
_as I know his fancies to be that Count de Vergennes and myself are con- 
_ wnually plotting against him, and employing the news writers of Europe to 

depreciate his character &c. But as Shakespeare says, “ Trifles light as 
air” &e. I am persuaded however that he means well for his country, is 
_ always an honest man, often a wise one, but some times, and in some things, 
absolutely out of his senses.* 

In the recently published Life and Works of John Adams, his 
grandson, the author and compiler, has incorporated in the Diary 
_of Mr. Adams a paper left by him entitled “Travels and Negotia- 
_ tions”, which appears to have been commenced in December 1806, 
and =e which the following is extracted: 

Dr. Franklin, one of my colleagues, is so generally known that I shall not 
attempt a sketch of his character at present. That he was a great genius, a 
great wit, a great humorist, a great satirist, and a great politician is certain. 
That he was a great philosopher, a great moralist, and a great statesman is 
more queStionable. (Vol. III, p. 139.) 

_ Whether the venerable diarist, when the above was written, had 

_ been apprised of the notice which had been taken of him by his 
renowned and equally venerable co-negotiator we can never know. 
‘Its resemblance to an excusable retort courteous is certainly not a 
little striking. 

_ To return to the commencement of the administration of John 
Quiney Adams, efforts were made by its friends to excite public 


% lIn the Department of State, Continental Congress Mss. It is printed in Wharton, 
Diplo, Corres. (Washington, 1889), v. 6, 580. 


192 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 


odium against its opponents by charging that their opposition was Z 
personal, predetermined, and made without reference to public 
measures. In this they were aided by an unwise and somewhat — 
inflammatory declaration attributed to one of the South Carolina 
members. In point of fact our opposition commenced at the thresh- 
hold of the new administration but our course was nevertheless not — 
justly deserving of the imputations that were cast upon it. The 
fact that the election of Mr. Adams had been made against the 
known wishes of a majority of the People was at least sufficient to — 
justify us in standing aloof until we were officially informed of 
the views and principles in the administration of the Government - 
by which the President-elect would be guided. The vote of non- 
concurrence in the nomination of Mr. Clay as Secretary of State, 
was confined to a portion only of our friends and avowedly given ~ 
on personal grounds. Beyond that nothing was done until the de- 
livery of the Inaugural Address in which the new President dis- — 
closed the principles of his administration—principles of which ~ 
neither he nor his Cabinet expected our support. 

Mr. Adams was an honest man, not only incorruptible himself, 
but, as I have before said (and in these days it cannot be too often 
said or too favorably remembered) an enemy to venality in 
every department of the public service. He loved his country, 
desired to serve it usefully and was properly ambitious of the honor 
of doing so. At a time and under circumstances highly creditable 
to his patriotism he left his party and came to the support of Mr. 
Jefferson’s administration. Knowing that in voting for the em- 
bargo he opposed the opinion of his State he resigned the place 
of Senator in Congress which he held by her appointment and 
was, in the following year, sent as Minister to Russia by Mr. Madi- 
son. He occupied several prominent public stations abroad during 
Mr. Madison’s administration and was recalled at the commence- 
ment of Mr. Monroe’s term to take the leading position in his cab- 
inet. The appropriate duties of these high offices, commencing 
very soon after his rupture with the federalists and continuing — 
through the entire administrations of Madison and Monroe, he dis- 
charged not only with great ability but with equal fidelity and 
honor. He doubtless embraced fully and sympathized cordially in 
the feelings and opinions of Jefferson, Madison and the republican 
party, by which they had been elected and by which alone the admin- ~ 
istrations were sustained, on the subject of the War with England. 
The same may be said in regard to most if not all the public ques- 
tions that arose out of our foreign relations between the imposition 
of the embargo and the close of Mr. Monroe’s Government. 

But such we are bound to believe was not the case in respect to 
the political creed of the old republican party on the subjects of the 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 193 


proper and only legitimate objects for the institution of govern- 
ments among men, and the purposes for which they should be em- 
ployed,—of the true theory of our complex Federal and State 
system in its operation upon domestic affairs, and the uses for which 
they were respectively framed and could only be rightly applied, 
and of the binding effects of written constitutions; a creed which 
having caused the Revolution subsequently, in the same spirit and 
significancy, triumphed in 1800, °and was throughout faithfully 
sustained by Jefferson, and, with a solitary exception, by Madison. 
The influence which that party had exerted in the overthrow of the 
Founder of his House was not calculated to conciliate the feelings 
of a man of Mr. Adams’ temperament. He had too much self 
respect to profess that, on these points his original views of opinions 
which had met with his warmest opposition in the early part of his 
political career had undergone any change. He therefore em- 


braced with avidity and supported with zeal the project of Mr. 


Monroe to obliterate the inauspicious party distinctions of the past 
and to bury the recollection of their causes and effects in a sepulchre 
proposed by himself—to wit in “the receptacle of things lost on 
earth.” 

With such feelings and amidst the distractions and consequent 
temporary overthrow of the republicans he was elevated to the 
Presidency. The condition of parties at that moment, the feelings 
that pervaded them and the effects produced by the preliminary 
steps and subsequent measures of the new Administration are mat- 
ters of interesting review, at least to one who had opportunities to 
judge of them correctly and thinks himself able to speak of them 
with reasonable impartiality. 

The election of the son of the statesman whom the ancestors of 
some among them had deemed it such a triumph to overthrow in 
the great civil struggle of 1800—a son believed to be imbued with 
many of the strong prejudices and obnoxious opinions of his 
father—as the first fruit of their own distractions, was a source 
of keen regret to the old republicans, save the comparatively few 
who had decided to follow the fortunes of Mr. Clay. The power 
which the old federal party had exerted in the recent contest and 
the alacrity and exulting spirit with which its votaries rallied to the 
standard of Mr. Adams as to a complete restoration of their influ- 
ence in the Government, soon satisfied those who had yielded to the 
idea of the extinction of that party of their delusion—a convic- 
tion mingled with self reproach. These latter, attached as strongly 
as ever to the principles of their own party, and convinced by their 


° MS. II, p. 80. 
127483°—voL 2—20——18 


194 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. eat 


unexpected defeat of the continued necessity of organization to 
make them ascendant, became early desirous for its restoration. Al-— 
ways under similar circumstances, the rank and file of a political — 
party, taught by adversity the folly of their divisions, look to a — 
discontinuance of them to soothe its mortification, and long delays 
in accomplishing a cordial reconciliation are invariably attributed — 
to the policy and ambition of leaders. In the present case the 
difficulties of this kind were not formidable, as the friends of Mr. — 
Clay were readily made scape-goats for all delinquencies. A short — 
interval to soften the minor irritations produced by the asperities 
of the canvass, and an outside pressure from the successful candi- — 
date were alone necessary to the formation of a hearty and effective — 
union between the friends and supporters of Jackson, Crawford — 
and Calhoun. That pressure was quickly applied by Mr. Adams ~ 
in his Inaugural Address. Believing that the steps that had been 
taken to break up old party organizations had been successful, a 
large portion of that paper was employed in demonstrating and 
applauding the result. The merits and demerits of the two great 
political parties which had divided the opinions of our country 
were, in felicitous terms, placed upon a footing of equality; the 
policy of our Government towards foreign nations was assumed 
to have been their principal source; the catastrophe of the French 
Revolution and our subsequent peace with Great Britain were al- — 
juded to as having uprooted the baneful weed of party strife; no 
differences of principle, it was declared, either in relation to the 
theory of government or to our foreign intercourse, had since ex- 
isted sufficient to sustain a continued combination of parties; ani- — 
mosities growing out of political contention had consequently, he 
said, been assuaged and the most discordant elements of public — 
opinion blended into harmony. 

The scattered members of one of those great parties, of that, too, — 
which when united had for a series of years possessed the confidence — 
of the country and been intrusted with the administration of the 
government, but which had now been defeated mainly by the con- 
certed action of its old opponents—could not be expected to listen 
with complacency to this description, by their successful rival, of a 
state of things which they had discovered to be “a delusion and a_ 
snare.” But this was not all: the new President announced among t 
the subjects of Federal legislation which he favored that of Internal — 
Improvement by means of Roads and Canals. He admitted that 
some diversity of opinion had prevailed in regard to the power of 
Congress over the subject, but it was alleged that a great advance 
had taken place in public sentiment in favor of the power and con-— 
fident hope was expressed that its extent and limitation woulc soon 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 195 


be established to the satisfaction of all, and “ every speculative 
' seruple solved by practical public blessings.” 

In his first annual Message he dwelt with much earnestness and 
at great length on the same subject—pressed the transcendant im- 
portance of the policy recommended and the obligation to promote 
_ it, and recommended to the persevering consideration of Congress 
F «the general principle in a more enlarged extent ;” embraced among 
_ several other specified objects a University ae Astronomical Ob- 
servatories, describing the latter as “light houses of the skies! ”—a 
- name sufficiently felicitous in regard to the subject, but indiscreetly 
used as conceded by his friends in reference to the circumstances 
_ under which he spoke——and closed with an admonition as to the 
_ consequences of attempting to excuse our failure in duty by pro- 
_ claiming to the world that we had allowed ourselves “to be paralized 
_ by the will of our Constituents.” 

These papers were written with the ability for which Mr. Adams’s 
pen was justly distinguished. They were filled with well-wrought 
-encomiums on the Federal Constitution, plausible definitions of the 
_ grants and limits of powers between the General and State Govern- 
_ ments, and eloquent injunctions in favor of their faithful observ- 
_ ance; and yet not one of the followers of the old Republican faith— 
_ no intelligent friend of the reserved rights of the states could fail 
_ to see in them the most ultra latitudinarian doctrines. The expres- 
sions which I have quoted, and especially that in which he spoke of 
_ the Representatives allowing themselves to be palsied by the will 
of their constituents, tho’ couched in terms of professional ambiguity, 
_were well calculated to strengthen that conclusion. Even Hamilton, 
_ who had always been placed at the head of the latitudinarians, 
_ whilst avowing, in the ingenuousness of his nature, his admiration 
_of the British Constitution, admitted that the establishment of a 
' monarchy here ought not to be attempted because it would be 
_ against the known wishes of the people, while it was the duty of 
_ their representatives to conduct the government on the principles 
elected by the constituency. 

_ Mr. Adams’s description of the then state of public opinion in 
_ fespect to the constitutional power of Congress over the subject of 
- Internal Improvements was, in the main and particularly in 
espect of those who had constituted the great body of the Repub- 
ican party, very incorrect. It was true that several prominent 
Republicans had, after the peace, entered warmly into the support 
_ of that system, evidently under the impression that® it was the 
| path to the confidence and support of the people, and there were of 


° MS. II, p. 8d. 


196 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


self interest, were willing to have their “ speculative seruples solved ” 
by so-called, “ practical public blessings.” But the thinking and ~ 
disinterested minds of the party, as well as the mass who were influ- — 
enced by their counsels, continued to regard the claim of this power 
as dangerous heresy and to oppose it by every effort—an opposition 
of which the Journals of the National Legislature through several — 
administrations furnish abundant evidence. 

I never entertained a moment’s doubt, after the delivery of the 
Inaugural Address, of the speedy reunion of the Republican party— 
excepting the personal adherents of Mr. Clay, but including a ~ 
majority of its former supporters in the eastern states who had been 
drawn off to Mr. Adams by the consideration of his being an eastern 
man. 

It suited the policy of the friends of the Administration, taking 
advantage of an article in the Albany Argus, newspaper, which was” 
published without my knowledge and- in well understood opposition 
to my opinions, and of the near expiration of my Senatorial term, to 
charge me, through their presses, with a concealment of my views 
in regard to the new government until I might secure my reelection: 
hence the imputation of non-committalism which became thence ~ 
forward the parrot-note of my adversaries throughout my public 
career always applied to my sayings and writings except when it 
was supposed that more injury could be done by attributing to me ~ 
the sentiments which I meant to express. My son, Col. Van Buren, 
on his return from the campaign in Mexico, described to me an inci- 
dent amusingly illustrative of the tenacity with which this party 
catch-word of more than twenty years maintained its place in the 
vocabulary of those who had been accustomed to use it. At the 
hottest moment of the battle of Monterey, when it required all the 
circumspection of Gen. Taylor and his staff to avoid the cannonade 
of the enemy, directed against the position they occupied, Col. 
Baylie Peyton rode up to the General with a message from Gen. 
Worth who was stationed on the opposite side of the city. Having 
made his communication, he added that a letter had been found in 
the pocket of a dead cavalry officer from Santa Anna in regard to- 
whose movements and plans there was great uncertainty and of 
course great interest. “ Well,” said the General, “which way is he 
moving?” “Upon that point” replied the Colonel, “ his letter is 
quite Van Buren-ish and leaves us altogether in the dark!” Gen. 
Taylor, who knew enough of party politics to recognise a portion 
of its vocabulary so notorious, and to his credit as a soldier very 
little more, turned to my son at his side and said, somewhat sharply, 
“Col. Peyton, allow me to introduce you to my aid Major Van 
Buren.” Peyton, altho’ a violent political partisan, was a generous: 


— +e 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 197 


hearted man and had, in the excitement of the moment, been un- 
mindful of my son’s presence. Regardless of the constant saluta- 
tions to the company of the enemy’s artillery he insisted on acquit- 
ting himself on the spot of intentional want of courtesy, either to- 
wards him or myself—for whom he protested, notwithstanding 
political difference, he had always entertained the kindest and most 
respectful feelings; which was doubtless true, and he was of course 
readily excused upon the single condition that he would allow my son 
to give me the benefit of a hearty laugh by describing the scene to me. 

There was never perhaps a more unfounded imputation, and no 


two men in the country were less in doubt in respect to my course 


than Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay. They understood too well my feel- 
ings on the subject of Mr. Monroe’s fusion policy which they both 
promoted, and they had seen too much of my opposition to the 
principles and measures which they knew would become leading 
features of their administration to expect me to sustain it. I feel 
that I can say with truth that throughout my political career it 
was my invariable desire to have my opinions upon public questions 
distinctly known. I publicly answered, without hesitation or un- 
willingness, more questions put to me by opponents whom I knew 
to have sinister purposes in putting them and whose predetermined 
votes were not to be affected by any assurances or explanations, 
than have been answered by all the Candidates for the Presidency 
together from the commencement of the Government to this day. 
Notwithstanding that these are by-gone affairs, in their time of very 
limited importance and now of none, yet in view of the extraor- 
dinary success of this partisan accusation and of its striking illus- 


tration of the power of the Press, I will record the proof of its 


original falsity which has at this late date accidentally fallen under 
my notice. In looking over some old papers for another object, I 
accidentally laid my hand on a letter’from Mr. Croswell, at the 
time Editor of the Albany Argus, in which the article in that news- 
paper which was so confidently attributed to my dictation and 
which gave rise to the charge of my pursuing a non-committal 
policy in regard to the administration of Mr. Adams, is directly 
referred to. The letter is dated April 3d, 1826, and the following 
extract is all that it contains upon the subject: 

* * *T must ask you not to be surprised at the tenor of the leading 
editorial article of this Morning. It has not been written without deliberation, 
The truth is, whilst there is an increasing aversion towards Mr. Adams 


amongst the Republicans of the State, there is a great aversion on their part 
to any collision with the administration which shall drive them to the sup- 


_ port of Mr. Clinton, or that shall force them to encounter the hostility of 
_ both. They prefer, for the present, at least, to stand in the capacity of 
_ lookers on, believing that the natural hostility between A and CG will be 
certain of shewing itself, and the sooner if we afford them no other aliment 


198 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. = 7 e 


than themselves. It is for this reason and because it is believed that little 
advantage and very great evil may arise from a contrary course that we 
propose to let the National politics alone. 

The italicising in the above extract is my own. It thus appears — 
that the position assumed by my friends at Albany was taken with- 
out my previous knowledge, and to shew how inconsistent it was — 
with my known opinions and acts it is only necessary to say that 
I spent the month of March immediately preceding the date of the ~ 
letter in earnest and active participation with the opposition in — 
the Senate in their efforts to defeat the Panama Mission, and the 
month of April, in which it was written, in resisting the project 
of the Administration in respect to the Judiciary Bill. The former 
was its favorite measure, whilst it acquiesced in the loss of the 
latter rather than agree to the Jeffersonian restriction of the act 
of 1802, confining the residence of the Judges to their circuits, — 
(upon which we insisted) notwithstanding our assent to the num- 
ber of Judges which they proposed, and of which they had pe 
appointment, or rather nomination. . 

My views in regard to the then next Presidential election were 
formally asked by that estimable man and inflexible old Republican, 
Judge William Smith, of South Carolina in an interview which 
I had with him at Boston, within three months after the commence- — 
ment of Mr. Adams’s Administration. I informed him that as 
Mr.° Crawford was removed from further competition by the state 
of his health my next candidate would be Andrew Jackson. To 
his questions in regard to the probability of success and to the 
safety with which we might rely on the General’s present political 
opinions—his confidence on the latter point having been shaken 
by the famous letter to Mr. Monroe? and by the incidents of the 
last election——I answered that by adding the General’s personal 
popularity to the strength of the old Republican party which 
still acted together and for the maintenance of which the Judge 
and myself had been strenuous colaborers, we might, I thought, 
be able to compete successfully with the power and patronage o: 
the Administration, then in the zenith of its prosperity; that 
we had abundant evidence that the General was at an earlier period — 
well grounded in the principles of our party, and that we must 
trust to good fortune and to the effects of favorable associations 
for the removal of the rust they had contracted, in his case, by 
a protracted non-user and the prejudicial effects in that regard 
of his military life. 


1 Edwin Croswell to Van Buren, Apr. 3, 1826, in the Van Buren Papers. It is in- 
dorsed: ‘‘ Origin of the non-committal charge, M. V. B. 1842.” 
° MS. II, p. 90. , 
2 Jackson’s letter of Oct. 23, 1816, and a certified copy of Monroe’s reply, Dec. 14, t 
this and the Jackson letter of Nov. 12 are in the Jackson Papers, Library of Congress. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 199 


_ Pleased with these views the Judge asked my consent to speak 
_ of them freely as coming from me, which was readily given, and 
he entered upon their support with characteristic spirit. It was 
at my suggestion that Gen. Jackson afterwards offered to Judge 
Smith a seat on the Bench of the Supreme Court of the United 
States, which he declined. 

From that period to the election there never was a moment in 
which my intention to oppose the reelection of Mr. Adams was not 
universally known, notwithstanding which fact the Administration 
_ presses succeeded extensively in imposing the non-committal fic- 
_ tion upon the credulity of their readers. I spent a few hours, not 
_ long since, with Mr. Walsh, formerly Editor and Proprietor of 
_ the National Register, (a journal politically opposed to me, pub- 
lished in Philadelphia) and with his amiable family, at their resi- 
dence, in Paris, and we all laughed heartily together at his allu- 
sions to some of the absurd anecdotes which the party spirit of 
that day had put in circulation on this point. Among many others 
of equal pretensions to truth he related this:—a bet was offered 
by one partisan to another that the latter could not put to me a 
question on any subject to which he would receive a definitive an- 
swer, which was accepted and the question asked was whether I 
concurred in the genera] opinion that the sun rose in the East; my 
_ answer having been that I presumed the fact was according to the 
_ common impression, but, as I invariable slept until after sun-rise, 
__ I could not speak from my own knowledge. Mr. Walsh heard this re- 
_ ported by persons who believed it to be true:—a strong illustration 
of the influence of a party press and of the fatuity of a blind party 
spirit. 

4 The acceptance by the President, in behalf of the United States, 
_ of an invitation received from the American States of Spanish origin 
_ to send a Minister to represent us at their proposed Congress at 
Panama, was the first great measure of Mr. Adams’s administration. 
This extra-territorial action of the Executive branch of the Gov- 
ernment, being without precedent in its history, contrary to the 
scope and spirit of the Constitution and at variance with one of 
_ the most prominent recommendations of the Father of his Country 
in regard to our foreign policy, presented the first tangible point 
for the opposition which had been anticipated and could not have 
"been avoided without an abandonment of cherished principles and 
which there was in truth no disposition to avoid. 

Mr. Calhoun had, to use his own words, “ taken a perfectly neutral 
| position between Gen. Jackson and Mr. Adams,” and there was not 
_ a little curiosity to learn what his course would be towards the 


1The National Gazette and Literary Register, edited by Robert Walsh. 


200 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. _ 


Administration after these developments of its views. I called 
upon him, at his residence in Georgetown, at the commencement of 
the session and found him as decidedly hostile to the Panama Mis- 
sion as I was myself. Although nothing to that effect was then 
said there was also an obvious concurrence in opinion between us 
that opposition to so prominent a measure of the Administration 
could not fail to lead to an ultimate union of efforts for its over- 
throw. This followed and from that period to the election of Gen. 
Jackson there was a general agreement in action between us, except 
in regard to the Tariff policy of which I have already spoken. 

The Panama Mission was a very imposing measure and well cal- 
culated, on first impressions, to be very popular. An assemblage 
of the free states of a Hemisphere by their representatives in one 
Congress, to deliberate upon the most effectual means to protect 
their own sovereignties, to advance the great cause of free govern- 
ments and, thro’ their instrumentality, the dignity and the happi- 
ness of their people, in contrast with, and, in some degree, at least, 
jn antagonism to the so-called “Holy Alliance” of the absolute 
Governments of another Hemisphere, assembled in another Con- 
gress to maintain and promote their despotic sway over the minds 
of men, was a scheme apparently well planned to captivate republi- 
can citizens. It seemed also well devised to soothe the public mind, 
to lessen the irritation unexpectedly produced by angry discussions 
during the recess growing out of the appointment of Mr. Clay and 
the doctrines broached in the Inaugural Address, and to bury the 
recollection of former discrepancies in the views of the leaders of 
the Administration by presenting them to the Country as the cor- 
dially united and enthusiastic advocates of a noble National under- 
taking. Indeed, no project could have been better adapted to pro- 
duce the latter result, for attempts to dazzle the public mind by 
gala-day measures of that description formed the ruling passion 
of Mr. Clay’s political life to which he sacrificed bright prospects 
that could doubtless have been easily realized by simpler means. 

Yet it was not difficult to show that the scheme was ill-advised and 


could not fail if carried out to cause incalculable evils to the Coun- — 


try. The first question was in regard to the point at which the assault 
should be commenced—whether in the Senate, on the nomination of 
the Ministers, or in the House on the appropriation for their salaries. 
Our greatest strength, in regard to talent as well as comparative 
numbers being in the Senate, that body was selected as the principal 
field of contest. The nomination of Ministers was referred to the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs of which Nathaniel Macon was Chair- 


man, who made an able report against the mission.t Our objection — 


1 Executive Proceedings * * * on * * * the mission to the Congress at Pan- 
ama, 1826, Jan. 16. S. Docs., 19th Cong., 1st sess., No. 68. p. 57. 


| 
: 


| 
| 


i 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 201 


being to the measure and not to the men nominated as Ministers, and 
therefore wholly unprecedented, I thought it a case in which the 
discussion should be public and introduced a resolution, which was 
adopted, to that effect “unless in the opinion of the President, the 
publication of documents, necessary to be referred to in debate, 
would be prejudieial to existing negotiations.” 

Mr. Adams, on receiving a copy of the resolution, refused to give 
the opinion respectfully asked by the Senate, not content with that, 

he, in his return message, said he would leave it to the Senate itself, 
(who were of course to a great extent ignorant of existing negotia- 
tions) to decide “the question of an unexampled departure from its 
own usages, and upon motives, of which, not being himself informed, 
he ° did not feel himself competent to decide.” This refusal, and the 
unauthorized allusion to and virtual condemnation of our motives 
gave great offense to the Senate, and was the first act of discourtesy 
in a series of proceedings which produced unprecedented excitement 
and ill-blood as well in the Senate as in the Country. A retaliatory 
movement was proposed, but as the original resolution had been 
introduced by me, our friends conceded to me, in a great degree, the 
suggestion of any action to be adopted on our part. I was sensible 
of theimportance of the proposed opportunity to repel the censure 
that was cast upon us for obstructing the passage of a measure repre- 
sented by the Administration press to be eminently patriotic, but my 
anxiety to avoid anything that) might be construed as a factious 
opposition was so strong as to induce me to prefer to waive it, which 
was accordingly done. 

The discussions occupied several weeks and became earnest and 
sometimes violent. After unmistakable indications of effects pro- 
duced by Governmental influence, the nominations were confirmed 
by a vote of 24 to 20,' and the measure received the sanction of both 
Hiouses of Congress, but it was undeniably thoroughly discredited 
with the Country by the opposition it had received. The Ministers 
went out but they found no Congress. Several of the Treaties among 
the South American States authorizing it were not ratified by them, 


_ hor were any other steps taken to carry the plan into effect. 


This general abandonment of the grand enterprise by its putative 
fathers, together with suspicious signs in the correspondence, satis- 
fied me that altho’ it had been apparently organized in South Amer- 


°MS. II, p. 95. 

2 With Van Buren voted Findlay of Pennsylvania, Chandler and Holmes of Maine, 
Woodbury of New Hampshire, Dickerson of New Jersey, and Kane of Illinois, making 
: Seven Northern and twelve Southern senators. Against Van Buren were eight sena- 
tors from Slave States, Barton of Missouri, Bouligny and Johnston of Louisiana, Cham- 
bers of Alabama, Clayton and Van Dyke of Delaware, Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky 
and Smith of Maryland. It was an incipient but a true party division.—Shepard, Martin 
Van Buren, American Statesmen Series (Boston and New York, 1899), p. 181. 


ica, ahs es which Suslintina it was 
Mr. Adams, in his next annual Message, sang a 
the lost project, accompanied by exculpatory « 
as no danger of resurrection was apprehen 
A POR. of a speech delivered by me on ‘the 1 
in. = jou 


CHAPTER XVIII. 


The proposition for the Mission to Panama was accompanied by 
a measure not less obnoxious to public feeling and alike indicative 
of great ignorance of the current of public sentiment on the part 
of the President and his Secretary of State, or a recklessness in 
encountering it in the prosecution of favorite schemes inconsistent 
with the character of prudent statesmen. That which we have just 
described was pressed upon the Country in open disregard of a 
familiar principle in our foreign policy, the observance of which 
had been coeval “with our Government and which had acquired a 
permanent and favorable lodgment in the public mind. The measure 
now referred to was the concession to Great Britain by treaty 
stipulation of the Right of Search to prevent the prosecution of 
the slave trade under our flag, a pretension against which, when 
attempted to be put in practice for the purpose of recovering British 


- seamen from our service, we had waged a war—the cause of which 


was yet fresh in the recollection of the People, as well as the irri- 
tations produced by it. 
We opposed the treaty and defeated it by a decided vote The 
condition of the Country in its foreign and domestic relations was 
so favorable at this time that with discreet men at the head of the 
Government, and ordinary prudence in the conduct of its affairs, 
there could not have been the slightest doubt of the success of the 
_ Administration, but unfortunately, as well for the Country as for 
' themselves, neither Mr. Adams nor Mr. Clay were either discreet 
_ by nature or instilled by experience with a proper appreciation of 
_ the humble virtue of prudence in the direction of public business. 
' Munificently endowed with genius and talents, their passion for 


"brilliant effects, of which I have spoken as peculiar to Mr. Clay 
- but which was common to both, was not crowned with a degree 


of success proportionate to the hazard of its indulgence. In the 
' career of the military leader this-is often otherwise, but in the 
_ administration of civil affairs statesmen of sober judgment and 


1The Convention with Great Britain was finaliy disposed of by the Senate May 22, 
1824. The votes on the various amendments are given in the Executive Journal of 
the Senate (Washington, 1828) V. 3, pp. 380-387. As ratified, by a vote of 29 to 13, 

_ tie convention was well nigh worthless aS 2 means of suppressing the American slave 
trade, For the final end of this negotiation see Clay’s letter to Addington, Apr. 6, 1825, 
_ in American State Papers, Foreign 5, No. 414, p. T 83. 

203 


204 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


prudence though possessed of less shining tlens are generally the 
most prosperous. 7 

Among other occurrences at the seat of Govesneae during this 
stirring period the duel between Mr. Clay and Mr. John Randolph © 
produced by a denunciation of the Administration on the floor of — 
the Senate, by the latter, as a “coalition between the puritan and 
the blackleg” was one of the most exciting. In his “ Thirty Years’ 
View,” Colonel Benton has given an account—clever and impar- — 
tial—of this affair. The subject was frequently adverted to by 
Mr. Randolph during our rides together and the details recited 
in his peculiar way. He invariably admitted that laying out of 
view the place where the offensive words were spoken and its im- 
munities, which he said he had waived as far as he could, Mr. Clay 
had incurred no blame in calling him to the field. On one occa- 
sion he told me that the latter had been six years in bringing his 
mind to that point, during which he had, on several occasions, fur- — 
nished him ground for such a step, but as he had always given — 
ihe offense in a way that left it optional with Mr. Clay to give 
the matter that direction or to let it pass, he had taken the lat- 
ter course. Perhaps no man ever lived more qualified to do such ~ 
a thing successfully than Randolph. He insisted that he at no © 
time intended to take Mr. Clay’s life and assigned as a reason 
his respect for Mrs. Clay and his unwillingness to make her unhappy, 
but he admitted that, after certain occurrences, he had determined 
to wound him in the leg—his failure to accomplish which design 
he attributed to an anxiety to avoid the kneepan, to hit which he 
regarded as muyder! 

Mr. Randolph’s intemperate speeches during the whole of the 
Panama discussion attracted a large share of the public attention, 
and the Vice President was much censured by portions of the public — 
press for omitting to call him to order. Randolph justified himself 
on the ground that a corrupt and tyranical administration could not 
be overthrown without violence, and quoted in his defence the 
text of scripture which says “the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth 
violence and the violent take it by force.” Mr. Calhoun held that 
he did not possess the power to call a senator to order, as the 
rules conferred that power on the members of the body only— 
that he could not claim it by implication, and that as he was not 
placed over the body by their own choice or responsible to them, he 
ought not in so delicate a matter to act upon doubtful authority. 
He therefore, very properly called upon the Senate to express its 
opinion upon the subject, and to confer the power upon him by their 
rules if they wished him to exercise it and if they concurred with 
him in supposing that he did not already possess it. This led to 
an elaborate discussion of the question and of the true construc-— 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 205 


tion of the Constitution in regard to implied powers, in which I 
took part and delivered a speech which will be found in——.t 

Mr. Randolph was in every way a most extraordinary man, and 
occupied wherever he went a large share of public attention. There 
was not a session of Congress during his years service as a 
member in which his sayings and doings did not contribute the 
principal staple of the political gossip at Washington. This was 
particularly the case at the commencement of Mr. Adams’s ad- 
ministration, when he appeared for the first time in the Senate 
where his whole course was one of annoyance to his opponents and 
of not a little uneasiness to his friends. He spoke day in and day 
out, and sometimes for several successive days, upon matters and 
things in general having political and personal bearings but not 
always even directed to the business before the Senate—an abuse 
in which others have since been largely participant, but in which 
perhaps there has never been so great an offender. His speeches 
attracted great attention from the severity of his invectives, the 
piquancy of his sarcasms, the ° piercing intonation of his voice and 
his peculiarly expressive gesticulation. He could launch imputa- 
tions by a look, a shake of his long figure, or a shrug of his 
shoulders, accompanied by a few otherwise commonplace words, 
which it would require in others a long harangue to express. These 
rare oratorical accomplishments were never suffered to grow rusty 
for want of use, and he kept us in constant apprehension that he 
would still further thin our ranks in the Senate, already some- 
what weeded by Executive favours, by the character of the stimu- 
lus with which he was in the habit of urging the sluggish zeal of 
some of our brethren. He had for some time been desirous to take 
in hand the case of John Holmes, of Maine, whose party fidelity 
was doubted by his associates long before he quitted them, and 
_ Randolph at length found a more justifiable ground for his assault 
than he could have anticipated. Holmes had made a speech which 
_ Randolph thought bore upon its face satisfactory evidence of being 
designed to propitiate the Administration, and either in it, or in 
_ some collateral remarks, had spoken of the Vice President and 


_ himself as personal friends. Randolph, finding these remarks in 


aa le at 


_ the papers, called the attention of the Senate to the subject, denied 
_ the right of Mr. Holmes or any other person to define his personal 
_ relations in delicate and guarded terms but in a way entirely 
_ respectful to that Senator, and, as an excuse for not saying what 
he now said when the remark was made, explained that he had 
not heard it and presumed it must have been made whilst he was 

1See Holland’s Life of Van Buren (Hartford, 1836) p. 279 for a long extract of this 


_ speech and note to p. 184 “ Substance of Mr. Van Buren’s observations in the Senate.” 
_ °MS, II, p. 100. ; 


206 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


out of the Senate. Holmes, thrown off his guard by the courteous — 
manner in which Randolph had excused his omission to notice the 
circumstance on the spot, not only insisted that Randolph was in 
his seat, but that he heard the remarks to which he now took ex- — 
ception, and evinced a degree of pertinacity in doing so which — 
amounted to rudeness. From the moment that Randolph under- — 
stood such to be the drift of Holmes’ remarks, his face assumed ~ 
its sternest expression, and he sat stiffly in his chair with folded 
arms, manifestly tortured with suppressed rage. On Holmes’ re-— 
suming his seat, he rose and recapitulated, with a self possession - 
that surprised us, what had occurred—shewed the length he had 
_,/gone to satisfy the Senator from Maine that he had no cause of 
complaint in the matter referred to and the persistence of that 
Senator in an attempt to impeach his veracity. Having done this 
in a cold and unimpassioned manner, his appearance and style ~ 
suddenly changed, and he charged Holmes with a premeditated — 
design to make a personal attack upon him as a peace offering to 
the Administration, and a prelude to his political apostacy, and 
proceeded in an assault the most severely personal that had per-— 
haps ever been heard within that chamber and seeming at the 
moment to annihilate his antagonist. 
Altho’ of course there were repeated cries of “Order! Order!” 
there was no specific and responsible call, and, if there had been, — 
his words were so skillfully chosen and his peculiar gestures con- 
iributed so largely to the conveyance of the most offensive imputa-— 
tions, that a Senator calling him to order would have found the 
greatest difficulty in writing down, as the rule required, the disor- — 
derly words on which the motion could be founded. The Senate im- 
mediately adjourned under great excitement. Randolph came to me _ 
and insisted that I should go home and dine with him, and on our 
way to his lodgings I remonstrated with him on his course in break- — 
ing down our party strength, admitted that Holmes had given him ~ 
a fair excuse for a reply of great severity, but not for an attack like 
that he had made which would unavoidably drive him from our 
ranks. “TI deny that,” he vehemently replied, “I have not driven 
him away. He was already a deserter in his heart; if you examine 
the body you will find that the wound is in the back!” ; 
I could not at the time account for the respectful and mild char-— 
acter of his preliminary explanations to Holmes, as I knew the state 
of his feelings towards him, but was in the end satisfied that it was 
a part of his design to make sure of his victim by first putting him 
as far as possible in the wrong. This affair was the cause of an ~ 
extraordinary scene in the Senate a few days afterwards. 
Mr. Randolph’s speeches became more and more annoying to the 
Administration and its friends, in and out of the Senate, and yet 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 207 


no one seemed willing to incur the responsibility of calling him 
to order. I inferred from circumstances a design on the part of the 
administration Senators to administer a corrective to Mr. Randolph 
by severally quitting their seats when he was speaking to an extent 
sufficient to leave the Senate without a quorum. This was practicable 
as the call of the House, usual in the other branch of Congress, was 
unknown in our body. Having engaged one day to dine with my 
friend Gen. Van Rensselaer at an hour earlier than the ordinary 
adjournment of the Senate, I gave Randolph notice in the morning 
of the necessity I should be under of leaving whilst he was speaking 
and of my desire to avoid setting such an example on account of my 
“suspicion as to the game of our opponents. He promised to close his 
“speech in season, but did not. Whey my hour arrived I held up my 

watch, and he pointed to the door. I left and the example was 
- quickly followed by the members of the opposition; in a very short 
_ time the flag of the Senate was lowered and the body adjourned for 
_ want of a quorum. This unusual proceeding having been once 
_ adopted—was soon to a considerable extent, converted into a prac- 
tice, to the great annoyance of Randolph whose vanity was wounded 
_ by an apparent indifference to his speeches which he had seldom ex- 
perienced and was little able to brook. The circumstance sensibly 
increased the bitterness of his denunciations and finally led to that 
' which caused the duel between himself and Mr. Clay whose im- 
‘patient spirit could no longer endure the invectives which were 
ie Lan hurled at him by Randolph. 


_ He [Randolph] visited Virginia soon after and whilst there became 
satisfied that his chance for a reelection was far from favorable. 
_ This increased the acerbity of his temper, and he returned to Wash- 
_ ington with a determination to leave it for England almost immedi- 
ately. He sent a message to me, on his arrival, asking me to call upon 
_ him at his old quarters. Being engaged in the Senate, it was not in 
| my power to do so before the adjournment, of which I informed him 
' by a note, adding also that I should expect him to dine with me. 


208 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


some of whom indeed had already arrived, he for a few moments 
insisted on returning, but, as I had foreseen, he was easily induced 
to abandon that idea, and I could not have afforded my company 
a greater treat than was furnished by his presence. He took the 
parole at once, and kept it till a late hour, talking upon a great 
variety of ee with more than his Hen ability and with the 
most entertaining raciness and originality. He began the meal with , 
calling for toast-water, pleading that wine was too strong for him, 
but yielding to the excitement of cénversation and the grateful con-— 
sciousness of appreciative listeners he gradually advanced through 
wine and water to wine, brandy and water and, before he left, to 
clear brandy. After the company retired he sat with me ‘till long 
after midnight describing the condition of things m Virginia, and 
his reasons for apprehending his defeat at the Senatorial election. 
Mr. Tyler, who had ’till that time always been in the Republican 
ranks, would, he said, be brought forward as a Candidate or sup- 
ported® by his enemies and his explanation of the causes which 
would induce a sufficient number of Republican members to vote 
with them, brought into view the hostility which had at different 
periods of his life existed between himself and Jefferson, Madison, 
Monroe and others and of which he gave me graphic and very in- 
teresting accounts. Having engaged no lodgings, in consequence of 
a determination, as he declared, never again to “have any in that 
corrupt hole” (as he called Washington), I sent my servant out to 
find a bed for him and afterwards to conduct him to it. 

On the following morning he appeared in the Senate, dressed with 
unusual care and apparently in excellent spirits, having ordered his 
carriage to be sent to the Capitol, with his luggage, at noon, to con 
vey him to Baltimore. Mr. Calhoun had, at his instance, appointed 
him a member of the Committee on Rules and his object, in coming 
to the Senate, was to report one or two very proper oe to 
the standing rules of the body. 

Mr. Holmes had manifested more sensibility in regard to Ran 
dolph’s attack upon him that was supposed to belong to his nature, 
and his inflamed appearance after it, in the Senate excited the appre- 
hensions of his friends in regard to his habits. His excitement on 
the morning referred to was greater than usual and he carried a 
huge cane which indicated that he meditated or expected a personal 
attack. He took the floor immediately after Randolph resumed his 
seat and read from a paper a series of amendments of the Rules 
which he proposed. These with scarcely an exception referred to 
acts with which Randolph had been charged and which it was pre 
posed thereafter to prohibit. Among them was one declaring it a 


° MS. II, p. 105. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 209 


violation of order in a Senator to make personal references to gentle- 
men who had been introduced on the floor of the Senate by other 
Senators. Mr. Russell, of Boston, Editor of the Columbian Centi- 
nel, a newspaper which had made a reckless opposition to the War 
of 1812, had been so introduced during the session, and Randolph 
had attracted the attention of the body to him by a general and 
seemingly not personal reference to a notorious feature in his polit- 
_ ical career; it was at that occurrence that the proposed amendment 
was aimed. 

Immediately after Holmes finished the reading of his propositions, 
Randolph asked Mr. Tazewell, his colleague, to take the clerk’s seat, 
and to write, as he dictated, a series of amendments to them “in the 

_ form of instructions to the Committee,”—designed as answers to 

_ them by successive recriminations. Mr. Tazewell, one of the best 
tempered men I ever knew, complied, and when the proposition 
which I have particularized was reached, under the impression that 
Russell had been introduced by Holmes, Randolph dictated the dec- 
laration, as an amendment, that the “personal reference” which it 

_ was now designed to stigmatize as disorderly was no more than a 

_ suitable reproof of the Senator who was so wanting in a sense of 
what was due to the dignity of the Senate and to his own character 
as to introduce such a man within the Bar! 

At this point the affair received an unexpected complication. 
Senator Lloyd of Massachusetts, a man of undoubted courage, who 
felt no insurmountable scruples upon the subject of private com- 
bat, and between whom and Randolph there had already occurred 

_ some newspaper sparring, sprang to his feet the moment the offen- 
sive words were uttered, announced himself as the Senator who 
_ had introduced Russell, repelled with great vehemence every as- 
' sault upon that gentleman, whom he pronounced to be quite equal 
% in respectability to Randolph himself, and indignantly shaking his 
_ closed hand at the latter, declared his readiness to give him satis- 
faction there or elsewhere! Randolph, entirely taken by surprise, 
DF sought an opportunity to explain, and disclaimed all hostile feelings 
_ towards Lloyd; but the latter could neither be appeased or silenced 
a and continued his minatory gestures and denunciations with un- 
diminished vehemence. In this condition of things Mr. King, of 
Alabama, cailed both the Senators to order, and Mr. Calhoun re- 
quested him to reduce the objectionable words to writing, as re- 
quired by the Rules. Sensible of the difficulty of committing to 
paper expressions used in such a squabble, which was yet going 
= Mr. King declined to do so, and in the excitement af the moment 
‘said abruptly, that he would not! Mr. Calhoun, anxious from 


bs 


~ 


1Benjamin Russell, 


127483°—voxr 2—20——__ 14 


“s tek AS ; 


210 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


what had passed, to do his whole duty when a case occurred within 
the Rules, rose from his seat and, pale with agitation, said “ The 
Chair orders the Senator from Alabama to reduce the words to 
writing.” The Senate at this moment presented a striking tableaw— 
Calhoun, King, Lloyd and Randolph on their feet, intensely ex. 
cited, oo every Senator present inclining from political and pen ] 
sonal sympathy to take sides in the fray—when the last moved 
deliberately from his place, which was on the extreme outer range 
of seats, and passed in front of the Chair to the door, exclaiming» 
as he walked along, “I will have no more of this! I am off for 
England! Good bye, Tazewell! Good bye, Van Buren! They are 
all against me! They are all against me Tazewell, in Virginia 
too! ”—and still uttering these words the doors of the Senate closed 
behind him. , 
The Vice President and Messrs. Lloyd and King resumed their 
seats: Mr. Tazewell returned to his place leaving his. unfinished 
papers on the Clerk’s desk and for a little while nothing was said 
or done. A sense of relief from the excitement in which Randolph 
lived and moved and had his being, as his native element, prevailed, 
and the Senate after a pause took up the order of the day without, 
either then or at any future time, giving further attention to the 
proposed amendments.? 


® This account of these proceedings is according to my best recollection of them, which 
is unusually fresh, as the subject is one to which my attention has been frequently 
directed, and of which I have often spoken. Mr. Tazewell’s officiating as Secretary is 
entirely lett out in the published proceedings, a point in which I know I cannot be mis- : 
taken, and a form given to the whole proceedings in some respects more consistent with 
the dignity of the body, about which the gentlemen charged with the publication of the 
details were always, much to their credit, very solicitous. Some allowance is certainly 
due to that consideration, in judging of the partial, and not very important, differences 
between their account and mine, which I cannot but think conveys with substantial 
accuracy their true character, 


CHAPTER XIX. 


An act for the relief of the officers of the Army of the Revolution 
in relation to their half-pay became a law about this time, and upon 
its passage I delivered the speech which will be found in——* 

Its merits will doubtless be found to fall below the reputation it 
acquired, yet I derived as much satisfaction from the effect it was 
believed to have produced as from anything in my legislative expe- 
rience. The Bill had been long under discussion, and the Senate 
had adjourned on the previous day on my motion, which constituted 
a notice according to usage that it was my intention to address the 
Senate upon the subject. Before the hour arrived for taking up the 
order of the day my friends pressed me not to speak as the Senate 
had been sufficiently canvassed to make the defeat of the Bill cer- 
tain. Louis McLane of Delaware, 2 member of the Senate, and a 
son of one of the officers for whose relief it was the object of the 
measure to provide, backed this advice so earnestly that I was in- 
duced to yield to it. When the Bill was announced the Vice Presi- 
dent turned his eyes towards my seat and seeing no intention on my 
part, or on that of any other Senator to speak, rose and stated that 
the question would be on final passage and was in the act of taking 
_ the sense of the Senate upon it when two ladies, friends of mine, 
who had come to the Senate to hear me, shook their fans at me in 
_ token of their disappointment and I rose from my seat intending to 
_ go to them with an apology. The Vice President assuming that I 
rose to speak announced “the Senator for New York” and, suddenly 
_ changing my mind, I proceeded to address the Senate, at length, in 

_ favor of the Bill. 
_ When I had concluded, Gov. Branch,? of North Carolina, an 
_ impulsive but always honest man, who had been violently opposed to 
_ the proposed° measure, moved to adjourn the question saying that 
views of the subject had been presented which were new and upon 
_ which he desired an apportunity to reflect. His colleague, the 
_ venerable Macon, scouted the idea of an adjournment, said that 
_ a good speech had undoubtedly been made, but that lawyers knew 
_ how to make good speeches on either side of any question, and 
| hoped that the Senate would without further debate proceed to the 
_ yote and reject the Bill. 


k: 
k. 
4 
S 

a. 
e 


/ 7+*Gales and Seaton’s Register of Debates, under date of Jan. 28, 1828, vol. 4, pt. 1, 
167-182. 
2 John Branch. 

°MS. II, p. 110. 


211 


i 


a 


.\ money in satisfaction of their just claims. 


212 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 


Gov. Branch replied with feeling that his course in regard to it 
was well known, that he had several times spoken against it, but that — 
be had no other feeling in the matter than a desire to do right and — 
that unless the views which had now been taken of the subject were 
satisfactorily refuted, he would, if driven to the vote, support the 
Bill. This declaration produced an adjournment. It was soon dis- 
covered that others had also given way and a proposition was sub- — 
mitted to us the next morning that if we would accept certain amend- 
ments, of a character not very objectionable, a sufficient number 
would change their votes to secure a majority. We consented and 
the Bill became a law+—gladdening the hearts of many yet sur- 
viving soldiers of the Revolution and of the descendants of their 
departed brothers-in-arms, by the appropriation of large sums of © 


Imprisonment for debt, the rigour of which had been greatly ~ 
relaxed by state laws, being still in force against debtors to the 
United, States, attracted a considerable portion of the attention of © 
the Congress. My own efforts for its abolition commenced in the 
State Legislature at an early period of my connection with that 
body and were continued in the Senate of the United States in con- 
junction with Col. Richard M. Johnson, whose truly philanthropic 
feelings made him an enthusiast in the cause. * 

My plan from the beginning was: 

1st To provide for the most searching inquiries into the prop- 
erty of the debtor, however invested, and to arm the creditor with | 
all necessary facilities to secure the application of it to the pay- 
ment of his debts; and 

2d To punish fraudulent concealments as crimes, by confinement, 
upon executions, to the walls of the prison. 

Those facilities being secured to the creditor, I regarded every 
other Zien on the body of his debtor as alike inhuman and immoral, 
and advocated a repeal of the law by which it was authorized. 
The subsequent adoption of these views of the subject and the 
extent to which a practice, that had become, by inflicting punish- 
ment upon misfortune, the opprobrium of the age, has accordingly 
been abrogated, is highly honorable to the country. Although a 
professional man, not wanting in esprit du corps, I yet must admit 
that this great reform is perhaps indebted for its success less to 
our lawyers and merchants than to almost any other class. I gener- 
ally found them the most obdurate and inflexible in their adherence 
to the old system arising rather from the force of habit than from 
less humane or less liberal dispositions. The merchant had been 
educated to look upon the security founded on the fear of imprison- 


1 Approved Feb, 12, 1828, 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 213 


ment as a vital element in a well regulated credit system, and the 
lawyer had been blinded to the immorality of such Ziens by the long 
and frequent enforcement of them under the sanction and with the 
cooperation of the Courts. But all such ideas and arguments have 
been exploded by the steady progress of liberal opinions, and there 


‘are none now who would more cordially resist the restoration of 


imprisonment for debt, in the absence of fraud, than those classes. 
So certain and so generous indeed is now the indulgence of the 
American Merchant to his unfortunate debtor as to place him in 
that respect in a more creditable position than is occupied by his 
mercantile cotemporaries in any part of the world. 

The subject of a Bankrupt Law was also seriously agitated in 
the Senate whilst I was a member of that body. The abuses prac- 
tised under the law of 1800 not only led to its speedy repeal but 
attracted a degree of odium to the system itself which prevented 
its reenactment until 184-; a spasmodic effort was then made to 
close up the appalling chasm which had been made in the business 
relations of the Country through the instrumentality of a Bankrupt 
law, which, so soon as it had effected a sort of general jail delivery, 
was, like its predecessor, sent to an early and ignominious grave. 

During that long interval there had been several unsuccessful 
attempts to revive the system. Mr. Hayne, of South Carolina, who 
had moved in the matter previously, introduced, upon leave, at the 
commencement of the session of 1827 “A Bill, to establish a uni- 
form system of Bankruptcy throughout the United States.” It 


‘contained the usual provisions applicable to merchants and traders, 


and also a section (the 93d) extending to all classes, whether traders 
or not, upon the principle of an Insolvent law, and was referred 
to a select committee composed of Messrs. Hayne, Berrien, Silsbee, 
Smith of Maryland, Johnson of Kentucky, Sandford? and myself. 

The proceedings. of this Committee and the action of the Senate 
upon them have been kept fresh in my recollection by the striking 
exhibitions they afforded of the working of that spirit of rivalry 
so common to political life and so influential in the business of 
legislation. The leading and most active friends of the proposed 
Bill were Col. Hayne, the Chairman of the Committee, and Judge 


_ Berrien,’ of Georgia. They were co-adjutors in politics and among 


ge x 


the foremost in organising and forwarding the Party then in course 
of development which had for its objects the overthrow of the 
existing Administration and the election of Gen. Jackson. Col. 


_ Hayne possessed a lively imagination and an intelligent and dis- 


1 Robert Y. Hayne. 

2 Nathaniel Silsbee of Massachusetts; Samuel Smith, Richard M. Johnson, and Nathan 
Sandford, of New York. 

*John Macpherson Berrien. 


“a < 
214 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. ei 4 


criminating mind. Judge Berrien was not less highly favored in 


; 


both respects, and had besides, acquired a greater wariness in debate — 


by a long and more busy professional life. They were both am- 
bitious and looked forward, as they had a right to do, to high rank 
in the party of which they were members. 


When called upon in the Commitee for my opinion of the Bill, 


I declared myself ready to vote for a Bankrupt law proper. appli- 
cable to merchants and traders, but opposed to the ninety-third 
section as unauthorized by the Constitution and in every respect 
inexpedient. I was prepared to assign the reasons which had 
brought my mind to those conclusions but was prevented from doing 
so by finding no disposition such as I had anticipated, on the part 
of the leading supporters of the measure in its original shape, to 
make me a convert to their opinions. The sense of the Committee 
was at once taken and a majority declared in favor of the whole 
Bill. Differences of opinion in regard to the disputed section were 


regarded with indulgence as results which had been expected, and 


dissentients were referred to the Senate Chamber for the Sanat 
tion and vindication of their views. 

I was certainly somewhat piqued at this course but having wit- 
nessed similar proceedings among political friends when acting upon 
subjects supposed to be of great interest in the public mind I de- 
termined to be no further influenced by it than to give the Bill a 
more thorough examination after stating more distinctly to the 
committee my intention to° oppose it if the objectionable clause 


was retained. I went to the Senate intending to confine myself ° 


to a simple and brief statement of the ground I occupied, notwith- 
standing that I had, as I believed, made myself master of the sub- 
ject and notwithstanding the feelings produced by my construc- 
tion of the course pursued in the committee. I came to this con- 
clusion because my support even of the constitutional parts of the 
Bill was little more than an acquiescence in the opmions and wishes 
of my friends—my own impressions being then as they have been 
since that the frauds inseparable from the execution of a national 
bankrupt system are likely to outweigh its advantages and I could 


therefore feel no great solicitude for its passage. Besides I feared 
that I could not present the encroachment of the ninety-third sec- — 
tion upon a state sovereignty in its details and in the proportions — 


which the subject allowed without mortifying the pride of my 
southern friends by holding them up to their constituents as un- 


faithful to a principle which was the corner stone of our Party and ~ 


particularly so regarded in the states they represented. 


° MS, II, p. 115. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. O15 


A motion was made by Gov. Branch to strike out the 93d section, 
and upon this and other motions a debate ensued which occupied the 
Senate for more than a week. When the question was abcut to be 
taken I made the brief statement I contemplated, and which ap- 
pears in the Congressional Debates. The motion failed, and the 
section was retained by a vote which indicated the passage of the 
_ whole Bill, but a motion to reconsider was made the next morning 
by Senator Barton of Missouri, who had upon more reflection 
changed his opinion and was now against the section. On this mo- 
tion the debate was renewed embracing the whole subject and in 
the course of it the principles I had briefly advanced were reviewed 
_ to an extent that made it my duty to sustain them. I thereupon 
_ delivered a speech of considerable length which was not published 
_ for the reasons assigned by Gales & Seaton in their volume of the 
_ debates of that session, but which I have always regarded as the 
most successful of my senatorial efforts. Whatever may have been 
its merits, or its lack of them, there was no difference of opinion 
_as to its effects upon the disposition of the question. It placed the 
_ provisions of the ninety-third section in lights that had not before 
- occurred to many of those who sustained it and made them anxious 
to get rid of it without an immediate change of votes. They be- 
came in consequence disaffected to the Bill, and, although the vote 
on the section was substantially the same as before, the whole Bill 
was rejected by a vote of 25 to 15. On motion of Col. Hayne it 
was recommitted to the select Committee with instructions to strike 
out the obnoxious section, and in that form reported to the Senate 
_ where protracted efforts were made for its passage, but without 
success. : 
- Upon the conclusion of my speech the Senate adjourned and 
before I had left my seat Messrs. Hayne and Berrien approached 
_ me with vehement complaints of the course things had taken and 
_ of my agency in producing it. I proposed to them to join me in 
the carriage and to talk the matter over on our way to our lodgings. 
Our conversation was of that eager and earnest character usual to 
Southern men when highly excited. Judge Berrien being asked 
_ to specify the ground of his complaint said that I had taken them 
by surprise—not having given them reason to expect that I would 
‘oppose the ninety-third section in debate altho’ I had disapproved 
‘of it. Col. Hayne, however, without waiting for my reply, ex- 


_ 7Yan Buren spoke on the bill on Jan. 23, 25, 26, and 27 and again on Feb. 1, 1827. 
_ The surviving portions of these speeches are in Gales and Seaton’s Register of Debates, 
_ yol. 3, 82, 104, 119, 121, 160 and 226. The principal speech was delivered on Jan. 27 
_ and under that date Gales and Seaton (3, 160) explain that this and Van Buren’s pre- 
ceding speeches are not reported because their reports, forwarded to Van Buren for 

revision, were mislaid by him. Van Buren’s auto-notes for his speech are in the Van 
Buren Papers under date of Jan. 23, 1827. 


916 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


claimed that he felt bound to admit on the contrary that I had 
given them distinct notice that I would make active opposition to 
the Bill if that section was retained:—“ But what I complained 
of” said he, “is that Mr. Van Buren did not state his objections, 
‘which now appear to have been of so grave a character, that he 
did not make an effort to convince us of their importance and give 
us such information upon the subject that we might have been 
prepared either to admit their weight or to rebut them.” 

I at once admitted that this complaint would have been well 
founded had not circumstances occurred which excused me from 
doing what he suggested, and informed them that I attended the 
Committee intending to give them a candid account of the [my] 
reasons but their attitude compelled me to think that they did not 
desire me to do it. We could not agree entirely as to all the facts 
on which my opinion was founded, but my statement evidently modi- 
fied their complaints. In the subsequent discussions Col. Hayne 
made no further attempt to sustain the ninety-third section nor did 


Judge Berrien make material reference to it otherwise than to repel — 


as unfounded the charge he attributed to me of a want of proper 
respect on his part for state rights. 

Although the Judge and myself were afterwards members of Gen. 
Jackson’s Cabinet and our personal relations were always respect- 
ful they were never confidential nor particularly cordial. From my 
first acquaintance with him I felt that the cultivation and mainten- 
ance of such an intercourse with him would be impracticable, a 
sentiment which surprised me because it was inconsistent with the 
general current of my disposition and indeed then for the first time 
entertained. I refer to the fact only on account of its singularity 
and not in a spirit of complaint, as the fault, if any existed, may as 
likely have been with myself as with him. 

Col. Hayne I always regarded as a fair and generous hearted man. 
His course towards me on the question of my nomination as Minister 
to England, unjust as it was, did not change this opinion. I found 
no difficulty in attributing it to other influences than the unbiased 
dictates of his own heart. He was an improving man and if his 
life had been spared would doubtless have risen to still higher dis- 
tinction, at least in his own state. He possessed a tolerably good 
opinion of his own capacity, but whatever may have been the degree 
of this estimate of himself it was not sufficient to blind his eyes to 
what was passing about him. The Senate was at that time com- 
posed of much older men that at present, who were at least not 
less able. One consequence of their long experience in public life 
was that they spoke less for effect and sometimes discussed questions 
of considerable importance with seeming carelessness and compara- 


“as 


a eee 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 4 


tive feebleness. Newly appointed Senators often spent portions of 


_ the session previous to the 4th of March on which they were entitled 


to take their seats at Washington and much of the time in the Senate 
Chamber preparatory to becoming actors themselves, and I seldom 
failed to discover in the faces of the younger men of this class a 
disappointment in the character and proceedings of the body to 
which they had been chosen; a feeling which frequently inspired them 
with a degree of confidence and self-sufficiency on their first appear- 
ance which the Senate always understood and seldom omitted to 
correct in a way alike efficacious and decorous. Col. Hayne was a 
marked subject of this feeling as he was also of the appliances de- 
signed to remove it. He entered at once into the debates and without 
the slightest embarrassment spoke fiuently, intelligibly, sometimes 
forcibly but often without the slightest effect. Whilst he was him- 
self treated with proper respect, motions, arguments and opinions 
which he deemed very conclusive, were sometimes disposed of in a 
summary and unceremonious way not [at] all consistent with the 
weight to° which he deemed them entitled. In short, altho’ no one 
appeared to be specially disposed to thwart him there was an in- 
visible but continual filling of his pockets with lead by which his 
career was seriously obstructed. His disappointment was always 
seen in his expressive countenance and once to my knowledge spoken 
out. No one informed him of the cause, but he did not fail to dis- 
cover it himself, or to take promptly the steps to remedy the evil. 
From originating propositions himself he became obviously desirous 
to follow the lead of others—instead of the usual confident and ez- 
cathedra way of advancing his opinions they were now expressed 
with diffidence in moderate terms with well conceived expressions of 
deference to those of the elder and more experienced members of 
the Senate. The change was observed and appreciated. He had not 
only thereafter no more reason than any other member of the Senate 
to complain of its want of consideration for what he said or did, 
but he contracted a habit of acting and speaking in the body which 
was of great value to him there and would have been equally useful 
to him in any after stage of public life. 

The revulsion in trade and business of every description in 1837 
produced a clamor for a revival of the Bankrupt system from large 
portions of the people who had ruined themselves by their own 


_ improvidence. Among the many questions put to me by my op- 


ponents in the canvass of 1840—numerous enough to fill a volume— 
and answered notwithstanding the silence in which by their advice 


b their own candidate was shrouded, there were several calling for 
my opinion upon that subject. I took in my replies the same 


° MS. II, p. 120. 


i. 2 
a eS 


218 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


ground that I occupied on the occasion of which I have been speak- 
ing and in so doing was not unaware of the costly sacrifice I made 
of votes which I would otherwise have received. 


The subject of the Judicial system of the United States and its 
improvement was also elaborately discussed at this session. The 
increase of the number of states and the inability of the Judges 
to do equal justice to all made some alteration in the existing or- 
ganization of the courts a matter of high necessity. Several plans 
were considered one of which I will notice here because I think 
it involves a principle of great importance and because after re- 
peated ineffectual efforts for its establishment it seems yet to have 
supporters in and out of Congress and will in all probability be 
again proposed. This arrangement separates the Justices of the 
Supreme Court from the performance of circuit duties and de- 
volves them upon circuit Judges, to be appointed for that purpose, 
or upon the’ district Judges. 

Although the attempt to require by law that the Judges of the 
Supreme Court in the event of the establishment of such a system, 
should reside at the seat of Government has not to my knowledge 
been actually made yet its propriety has been sustained in Con- 
gressional discussions and it is moreover generally conceded that 
that consequence would naturally follow without legal require- 
ment. The struggle for the accomplishment of this object, seldom 
avowed but always meant, may be traced through our legislative 
history for more than half a century. The Act of 1789, first or- 
ganizing the Judicial] system of the United States, authorized the 
Judges to make temporary allotments of the Circuits among them- 
selves, but made no provision in respect to their places of residence. 
So the law remained until the celebrated Act of 1801, passed at 
the close of the administration of the elder Adams, which provided 
for an entire reorganization of the system. It converted the Su- 
preme Court into a Court of Appeals, relieved its Judges from 
Circuit duties and directed the appointment of nineteen Circuit 
Judges for their performance. 


The appointment of so large a number of officers for life by an Z 
administration from which the People had already withdrawn their 
confidence, and the extension of the Judiciary so far beyond the - 


wants of the public service, aided by the extraordinary excitement 
of the period, drew down upon that Act and its authors the greatest 
public odium. The incoming administration of Mr. Jefferson pro- 
cured the repeal of the law, the abolition of the offices of the new 
Judges, and the substantial reestablishment of the old system. The 
talents of the federal party then most conspicuous, were employed 
in brilliant but vain efforts to resist these measures. Their enactment 


iq 
y 
z 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 219 


was denounced as a violation of the Constitution and was held up to 
the People, in the forum and in the press, as the first fruits of vic- 
_ torious jacobinism. But these exertions were unavailing. The sys- 
_ tem then in substance restored has ever since prevailed and still 
_ exists because it is the best of which the subject is susceptible. 

But one material alteration of the former system was made, and 
that was upon the point to which I have referred. 
_ Mr. Jefferson and his associates in the Government saw, as they 
_ believed, in the bold measure of their retiring opponents the extent 
_ to which the latter counted upon the Judicial power as a political 
engine, and they saw in the Judiciary the only portion of our politi- 
cal system that was virtually irresponsible to the People. They 
_ knew that the possessors of such a power must in the sequel by the 
_ workings of the human heart and the irresistible law of human na- 
_ ture be hostile to the principles upon which the Government should 
_ be conducted and by which its Republican spirit could be alone up- 
held. Although the law they were about to repeal did not require 
the Judges to reside at the seat of Government, they could not doubt 
_ that such would be the effect and was probably the design of its pro- 
_ visions, of which they foresaw the evil political consequences, and 
_ they applied the only remedy within their reach in providing by law 
_ that the Judges should reside within their respective circuits. The 
only exception of this rule was in relation to the state of Virginia. 
That state had two judges on the Bench, Chief Justice Marshall and 
_dustice Washington. In deference to the Father of his Country the 
_ case of Judge Washington was excepted from the otherwise general 
_ provision, and he was not withdrawn from Mount Vernon. Seven 
years afterwards when the appointment of an additional Judge 
_ became necessary for Ohio the same provision was adopted and has 
been preserved in every subsequent law by which the system had been 
_ extended to meet the growing exigencies of the service. 
_ But it has not been preserved without a struggle.- On the occa- 
sion of the proposed appointment of three new J udges, during the 
administration of the younger Adams, the adoption of a clause com- 
pelling them to reside in their respective circuits was one of two 
questions upon which the Houses of Congress differed and through 
their non-concurrence in which the Bill was lost. The proposition 
‘of the House of Representatives was reported and sustained by Mr. 
Webster, and that of the Senate by myself. Portions of my obser- 
rations at the time upon the subject will be found in = 
It will be perceived by the remarks here referred to that I have 

subsequently changed my opinion in regard to the proper tenure of 


___ *Yan Buren’s entire speech, which was delivered Apr. 7, 1826, is in Gales and Seaton’s 
| Register of Debates, vol. 2, pt. 1, 410-423. 


920 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 


Judicial officers. Some of the reasons for this change are elsewhere 
stated. It was founded on observation and reflection and without 
prejudice. The tide of public opinion on the subjects of the juris- 
diction of the Federal courts and the term for which their Judges 
should hold their offices ° has had its ebbs and floods, and it is my 
firm belief that the time is not far distant when these questions will 
be more seriously agitated. : 

The future fortunes of Mr. Clay became dependent in‘a very great 
degree upon the success of Mr. Adams. This consideration added to 
his views of the public interest, enlisted all his faculties in the 
struggle. The contest between Mr. Adams and Gen. Jackson, who 
was with great unanimity selected as the republican candidate, was 
an arduous one, but was not, after the lapse of a year, considered of 
doubtful result on our side. The common rally of the old Repub- 
licans in favor of the General caused many Federalists, who had 
supported him in the last trial, to leave him now, and with the 
exception of a few prominent men in different states the masses of 
that party went cordially for Mr. Adams. But a zealous union be- 
tween that portion of the republican party who, adhering to its 
usages, had shown themselves willing to sacrifice personal prefer- 
ences to its harmony, the numerous supporters of Gen. Jackson in 
the preceding election who constituted the majority in several of 
the states, and the friends of Mr. Calhoun, who controlled South 
Carolina and were formidable in many other states, encouraged by 
the tried popularity of their candidate, and strengthened by the mis- 
management of the administration was too powerful to be resisted, 
and Jackson and Calhoun were elected to the offices of President 
and Vice President by large majorities. 

The same fall my friends called on me to stand as their candi- 
date for Governor of New York with a degree of unanimity and 
earnestness that did not admit of a refusal, and I was elected by 
a plurality of more than 30,000 over my quondam friend Smith 
Thompson, who was run for the office without resigning his seat on 
the bench of the Supreme Court. The anti-masonic excitement, 
which is too well understood to require explanation, made its first — 
political demonstration at this election. The criminal transactions+ 
which produced it were perpetrated in the midst of a district of 
country in the Western part of the state which since the War of 
1812 had been strongly on the republican side in party politics, 
and owing to this circumstance and to the fact that dislike of 
secret societies had always formed a more marked feature of our 
creed, the sincere converts to the new party were principally drawn 
from our ranks. The votes given for Mr. Southwick, the anti- 


° MS. II, p. 125. 
1The abduction and probable murder of William Morgan in the fall of 1826. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 221 


masonic candidate for Governor, exceeding in number the majority 
__ by which I was elected over Judge Thompson, were almost exclu- 
sively given in this region and at least two-thirds of them taken 
from our side. 
5 I entered upon the duties of the office of Governor early in 
_ January, and sent a Message to the Legislature which convened 
at the same time. I received soon after a letter from John Ran- 
dolph communicating his own and Nathaniel Macon’s congratula- 
tions upon the character of that paper. Few men were better in- 
structed in the principles of the republican party than Mr. Ran- 
dolph and there was not one on whose good opinion I placed a 
higher value than on that of the venerable Macon. 

I held the office of Governor only * days and during that 
short period succeeded in obtaining the action of the Legislature on 
three subjects in which I felt great interest. These consisted of 
adequate measures, first, to protect the public and more particularly 
the laboring classes, who were most concerned in a sound currency 
because they were the most dependent upon it and the least able to 
detect what was otherwise, from losses through bank failure; second, 
to prevent as far as possible the use of money at the elections, and 
third to abolish a particular monopoly? and thereby to relieve a 
valuable portion of the business of the community from unneces- 
sary and therefore injurious interference on the part of Government. 

Of my consistent opposition to the multiplication of banks and — 
my readiness to suppress and punish the frauds they have com- 
mitted on the public I have before spoken. I think in these respects 
the record will not produce the evidence of any man having gone 

_ beyond me, be the merit great or small. Thoroughly satisfied of the 
_ hopelessness of the task of putting a stop to the improper increase 
of banks I turned my attention to the consideration of the most 
_ effective measures to protect the most helpless against losses by their 
failures. Joshua Forman, of Onondaga county, a plain but prac- 
tical and far-seeing man, apprised of my general views in the mat- 
ter, submitted for my consideration a plan for the accomplishment 
_ of my object of which I thought favorably and which contained in 
a rough state many of the features of the Safety Fund System whick 
was finally adopted.* I opened communications with those whom I 
regarded as the most competent and trustworthy bankers of New 
York and Albany and submitted to them the project of Mr. For- 
man with my own views of the subject, and after full discussion we 


1From Jan. 1, 1829, to Mar. 12, 43 days. 
3 2The bank monopoly, created by the practice of the State accepting a money bonus 
_ for a bank charter. 

3Forman’s letter dated Jan. 24, 1829, is in the Van Buren Papers, 


5 


222 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


settled upon the plan ultimately submitted to and adopted by the 
Legislature. Having an abiding faith in the wisdom and efficacy 
of the system, if honestly administered, I have requested my friend, : 
Major Flagg, who as Comptroller of the State had much to do 

with its administration, and in whose statements all who knew him — 
will confide, to give me a brief statement of its workings through- 
out. His reply will be found. 

The law which I assisted in framiing to restrain the use of money 
in elections is still, I believe, on the statute books, and no one can. 
doubt its sufficiency if the provisions were fairly executed. I exerted 
myself to the uttermost before I left Albany and afterwards from — 
Washington, by letters to induce my political friends to take a strong — 
stand in its support at the first election after its passage urging 
upon them considerations founded on the unprincipled character 
of the practices it was intended to suppress, the special obligation 
upon them to abstain from and resist such practices as claiming a 
purer political faith than their opponents and finally the inferior 
motive of expediency. I assured them that experience had satis-— 
factorily established the fact that as to the two great parties which — 
divided the country the spontaneous feelings of a large majority 
of the People were on our side; that whenever we were defeated the 
result could generally be traced to specific and extraneous causes; 
that with this truth before our eyes nothing could be more unwise 
- in us than to tolerate practices which exerted an influence upon the 
elections in utter disregard of the conduct or principles of the re- 
spective parties or of the unbiased inclinations of the People; that 
in the use of money the struggle was altogether unequal—the banks, — 
incorporated companies of all descriptions and the monied interest 
being generally against them and able to raise more dollars than they 
could cents and that whilst they paid out their driblets their adver- 
saries, emboldened by their participation, would carry all before 
them by the lavish expenditure of thousands. 

I urged them in view of these and other similar considerations — 
to forbear the use of money themselves, to appoint at their town 
meetings a committee whose duty it should be to attend the polls” 
and to institute prosecution in every case where they had reason — 
to believe that the law had been violated. But my efforts were un-— 
availing. Not a single committee was appointed or any efforts to 
my knowledge, made to carry the law into effect. It has stood° 
as a dead letter on the statute book ever since. Excuses were given — 
‘by some of my friends that its provisions were too stringent and 
that they could not carry an election without violating some of 


1 Azariah Cutting Flagg. His statement is missing from the Van Buren Papers. 
° MS. II, p. 130, 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. IS 


them. Partisans have since waded through seas of corruption in 
the profligate use of money in elections—neither side has been 
free of offense although nine tenths of the effects produced have 
without doubt enured to the benefit of our opponents. 

I have ever advocated the abolition of patronage that was not 
acquired for the despatch of public business and limiting the in- 
terference of the Government in the business concerns of the People 
to cases of actual necessity, and [have been] an enemy to monopoly 
in any form. Our state being eminently commercial a large and very 
valuable portion of its trade was carried on through the medium of 
sales by auction. The exclusive right of making such sales had, from 
the commencement of the Government, been conferred on officers 
called auctioneers, appointed and commissioned like the other officers 
of the Government. Appointments of this nature were like others 
usually given by both parties to their political supporters, but as 
meritorious politicians are neither necessarily or even usually good 
men of business or possessed of the means required to carry on 
business to advantage, they fell into the habit of transferring their 
official rights to those who were more fortunate in those respects 
for a share of the profits. A species of official brokerage was thus 
kept on foot and sanctioned from the necessity of the case discredit- 
able to the administration of public affairs. 

Looking upon the creation of these offices as an extension of pat- 
_ vonage by Government to be a case where it was neither necessary 
_ nor advantageous, and upon the exclusive privileges attached to 
them as an injurious monopoly, and satisfied that the business would 
4 be better attended to when left to those who had no other claims 
_ to be employed than those which arose from established character 
_ and proved capacity I recommended to the Legislature to abolish 
> the offices and to throw the business open to public competition. 
_ This was promptly done, and the results have satisfactorily vindi- 

eated the wisdom of the policy. 


; 


a ee ee ee ree 


/ 


if 
2) Mees 


CHAPTER XX. 


°T received a letter from Gen, Jackson, soon after his arrival — 
at Washington, offering me the place of Secretary of State of the 
United States '—a wholly unsolicited step. I had expressed no desire 
to receive that or any other appointment at his hands, either to 
him or to any other person and I have every reason to believe that — 
no advances to that end were ever made on the part of my personal — 
friends. He said in a published letter: “I called him [ Mr. V. B.] to 
the Department of State influenced by the general wish and expecta- 
tion of the republican party throughout the Union.” This position, 
like every other office or nomination save one, bestowed upon me 
in the course of my long public life, came to me without interference 
on my part, direct or indirect, and in the execution of the well under-— 
stood wish of the great majority of the political party of which I~ 
was a member. My election to the New York State Senate, the first 
elective office I ever held, was the exception referred to. The cir- 
cumstances under which I then felt myself constrained to interfere 
personally in support of a nomination, which I not only did not 
wish but stood ready to decline, have been unreservedly stated in an 
earlier part of this work. With that single exception my observance 
of that abstinence from personal efforts to acquire political advance- 
ment, which was once inexorably demanded by the habits and feel- 
ings of Northern people, has been uniform. On the most interesting 
occasion of all—when my acts and motives were most unsparingly 
assailed—that of my acceptance of the Presidential nomination, I 
flung before my opponents, including a large number whom IJ had 
been constrained, by views of public duty, to make such, altho’ pre- 
viously close and confidential friends, a challenge upon this theme, 
to which it will be admitted no one would have ventured to resort, 
at such a time, who was not well assured of his invulnerable position. 

My second nomination for the State Senate was made with per- 
fect unanimity. The opposition made to my appointment as Attor- 
ney General, under the State Government, in 1815, was an indi- 
vidual ifort by Judge Spencer, whose influcnes in such matters 
had before been irresistible, to punish me for refusing to sustain 
his views in relation to the choice of U. S. Senator, by defeating 
an appointment against which there was not, until that attempt, 
a known dissentient in the party to which we both belonged; an 
appointment by the way, of which he was, at an earlier period, 


SMS ILE Spend. 
1This letter, Feb. 15, 1829, is in the Van Buren Papers, 
224 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 225 


the first to suggest the fitness and of which he was an advocate until 
his favor was changed into hostility in'the way I have stated. The 
‘principal features of that affair have been described already and 
I will only add here the Gov. Tompkins delayed his casting vote, 
at the Council, between Judge Woodworth and myself—giving to 
ita quasi- -public character by announcing it at the Capitol—and 
declared in giving it that he decided the question in my favor be- 
cause he believed me to be competent to discharge the duties of the 
office and because he knew that my appointment was confidently 
expected by the party’ by which he had himself been elected. To 
_ this it may with truth be added that there was at the moment some 
coolness between the Governor and myself growing out of his ap- 
_pointments in my county, and that altho’ the question upon the tie 
_yote of the Council was pending before him some days, he was not 
approached upon the subject either by myself or by any of my 
friends, to my Imowledge or belief. Having been removed from 
the office of Attorney General under circumstances already noticed 
1 was, upon the return of my political friends to power, appointed 
eU. Ss. Senator, without disagreement among them. After the ex- 
-piration of six years, my re-nomination in caucas was made with 
great unanimity and received no opposition in the Legislature save 
from my political opponents. My nomination for the office of 
‘Governor was also made without opposition, and against my wishes, 
by a State Convention. Of my appointment as Secretary of State 
I have just spoken, and to that of Minister to England there was no 
- dissent, save by the antagonists of my party. I was made a candi- 
date for the office of Vice-President of the United States in pursu- 
ance of the spontaneous and united demand of the democracy of the 
Nation; a complimentary vote was given in Convention to two other 
gentlemen by the delegates of their respective States, who were, in 
“point of fact, as friendly to my selection as were those who advocated 
_ it from the first, but the nomination was forthwith made unanimous 
in form as it was in the wishes of the mass of the democratic party. 
_I received my nomination as the democratic candidate for the 
office of President of the United States from the National Demo- 
atic Convention of 1835* and again, after a four years incumbency, 


ee At the election, following this ncmination, I was deprived of the votes of the States 
E Tennessee, Georgia and even of that of the thoroghly democratic State of Alabama, 
a combination between the friends of Judge White, of Tennessee, and of Mr. Calhoun 
With the undivided opposition to President Jackson’s administration in those States. 
f ‘The Judge had not been a candidate before the convention. He was naturally honest, 
alhto’ open to prejudices, and more self-willed by far than General Jackson himself. 
en Major Haton quitted the War Department I advised the President to offer the 
ce to Judge White, and, as his own family had left him, in consequence of the Eaton 
broglio, I was particularly desirous that he should invite the Judge also, who was 
en a widower, to reside with him, with which he complied. Knowing the Judge only 
is the active and open friend of Gen. Jackson, J] was not a little struck by the care and 


127483°—voL 2—20——-15 


| . 
226 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. yi ee 


from a similar convention in 1840, by the votes of every member 
those bodies. Defeated in 1840, thro’ well understood causes, the 
great majority of the democratic masses rallied for the restoration 


cireumspection which the latter evinced in every step he took in the matter, but when — 
Judge White declined and I became better acquainted with the personal feeling of both — 
parties, I had no difficulty in understanding what before appeared inexplicable. I had 
no special claims upon the Judge, but it cost him a great effort to separate from the 
General, who admonished him, as well as his,wife (after his second marriage), in his — 
usual unreserved and emphatic way, of the consequences of the step he was about — 
to take. But Mr. Bell, of Tennessee, chosen Speaker of the House over Mr. Polk, by 
the votes of the opposition and of democratic members disaffected towards the Jackson 
administration, and Mr. Webster, by his attentions particularly to a member of a 
Judge’s family as well as to him, overcame his scruples. 

I have always believed that if I had possessed a tithe of the skill in subtle manage- 
ment and of the spirit of intrigue, so liberally charged upon me by my opponents, and — 
upon the strength of which they gave me the title of “ magician,” I could have turned 
aside the opposition which sprang from that source without much difficulty. Mr. 
Speaker Bell, tho’ not one of Judge White’s closest friends, doubtless controlled his 
action in the matter by force of superior capacity and knowledge. He had a passion ‘ 
for political intrigue and occupied at the moment a position of difficulty and hazard 
from the circumstances attending his elevation to the chair. I received frequent hints” 
of a desire on his part to hold a confidential conversation with me and was one day 
invited to dine with a mutual friend well disposed to his advancement; informed (be 
fore hand) that the Speaker would be the only other gentleman invited, I expected that 
the subject of the Presidential election would be introduced and could easily imagin 
the shape of the suggestions that would be made. , Bell and Polk were at the head of — 
rival interests in Tennessee, and the treatment they might respectively expect to receive - 
from the new administration, if I should be elected, was a matter of interest to both. — 
After the ladies retired, the subject was, as I had foreseen, introduced, but a severe tooth- 
ache compelled me to decline the ‘conversation and to retire almost immediately. We 
separated with the significant expression, by the Speaker, of a hope that I might not 
have a tooth-ache when we should meet again. This ‘occurred shortly after the com- 
mencement of the session of Congress of 1834-5. Some days thereafter, and on the 
last day of December, when Mr. Adams delivered before Congress, his address on the 
Life and Character of Lafayette, another attempt to converse upon the matter was 
made, The Senate repairing to the Representative Chamber, I, as the presiding officer, 
of that body, was of course placed by the side of the Speaker. He introduced the sub- 
ject by an expression of his regret that the republican party was to be divided by the 
nomination of Judge White and the satisfaction he would derive from an amicable 
adjustment of the matter, and proceeded to say that such progress had been made 
and such a point reached as made it indispensable that whatever was to be done to. 
arrest it should be done immediately. Determined from the beginning to make no ex- 
planations as to the course I would pursue if elected, in regard to personal interests, — 
I put a civil end to the conversation by a few general remarks in regard to the du 
that the friends of Judge White owed to the republican cause and my convictions that 
they could not so far forget it, as well as their interest, as to disregard both by + 
course indicated, and closed with an observation on the speech which was ay ay delivé 
in front of us. fs 

Struck by the peculiarity of the time and occasion selected by the Speaker for this 
communication I turned with greater interest to the correspondence between Jud 
White and the Tennessee delegation (Mr. Bell being one of them), soon after publi 
and found that it was only on the previous evening that the delegation had obtained h 
consent to the use of his name and that there was therefore great reason for the urgi 
manifested, arising from the necessity for speedy action. 

It was immediately afterwards announced in the Tennessee newspaper, which was 


is known. His resignation as Senator and final retirement from publie life, conscio 
of the extent to which he had been deceived and used, and sick of politics, follow 
immediately upon the result of the election. 

When his old colleague, Mr. Grundy, reached Washington, I inquired after the Ju 
and was answered by that facetious and worthy man as follows: “ You ask me how I 
spends his time! I will tell you :—he sits all the day long in the chimney corner, sp) 
ting tobacco juice by the gallon, cursing everything and everybody, except his Creator,— 
but thinking devilish hard of Him!” Note by Van Buren. a ; 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 227 


of their overthrown principles, by the instrumentality of my re- 
elevation to ° the Presidency. More than three fourths of the States 
instructed their delegates either in express terms, or thro’ unmis- 
_takable avowals of their preferences, to vote for my nomination. 
Their wishes were, however, defeated at the Baltimore Convention 
by the intrigues of politicians of which a brief notice will be taken 
_at the proper place. 
The unqualified resolutions of respect and confidence adopted with 
entire unanimity, by both branches of the Legislature of New York, 
on my resignation of the office of Governor, with the feelings of 
personal regard manifested by the citizens of Albany, without dis- 
tinction of parties, was the first Jet up in party violence that I had 
“ever experienced. These exhibitions of friendly and liberal senti- 
“ments, coming, to a considerable extent from men between whom 
and oe there had been, for about a quarter of a century, a cease- 
less partisan contest, ere more or less acrimonious, affected me 
deeply—I need not say, most agreeably; not solely on my individual 
account but on account also of the evidence they presented that 
there lies at the bottom of our party divisions a mass of kind and 
generous feelings, on all sides, waiting only fit occasions for their 
display. 
On my way out of the city I paid my last visit to the venerable 
John Taylor, then supposed to be on his death-bed; a sad anticipa- 
tion which was soon realized. Gov. Taylor was no ordinary man. 
From a comparatively obscure condition in life he had by his own 
unaided efforts raised himself to a position of much influence in 
the Government, and to the first rank in society. From the begin- 
ing a devoted personal and politica] friend of George Clinton he 
‘nevertheless cultivated friendly and social relations with General 
Schuyler, Genera] Hamilton and many other distinguished federal- 
ists, and there were, for many years, few private tables at which 
leading and eminent men of opposing politics were more frequently 
_ assembled than at his—none certainly at which a generous and 
elegant hospitality was more liberally dispensed, a gratification in 
which an ample estate, acquired by his own industry and without 
reproach, enabled him freely to indulge himself. 
_ On my first entrance upon public life he heard me with great 
Kindness, and altho’ we had been occasionally at issue in the State 
egislature and sometimes quite warmly, I never had reason to 
apprehend that those collisions had produced any change in his 
personal feelings towards me. The most important as well as the 
most exciting occasion on which we came in conflict related to the 
course we respectively pursued in regard to Gov. De Witt Clinton. 


I 
" 


° MS. III, p. 5. 


928 AMERICAN HISTORIGAL ASSOCIATION. 


He opposed, as has been related, the election of that gentleman 
for the Presidency in 1812. In ae so it must now be admitted 
that he acted a wiser part than I did, and I have before referred 
to the apparent asperity with which, on that occasion, he resented 
my course in the State Caucus. But, as I have also mentioned, 
his disposition towards Governor Clinton was subsequently enuel 
changed, and when the latter became finally separated from the 
republican party, Gov. Taylor’s long indulged partiality for the 
Clintons proved too strong to prevent him from adopting the same 
course. From that period to the day of his death we were opposed 
to each other in politics, but there never was a time when my feel- 4 
ings towards him were not of the kindest character and if I could — 
ever have doubted his cordial reciprocation of them such doubts — 
would have been effectually removed by our last interview. 
Apprised of my intention to call on him he had caused himself 
to be supported in a sitting position and was attended only by his 
adopted daughter, Mrs. Cooper, one of the very best of women.°® 
Taking my hand, at first, in both of his own and retaining his hold 
by one until I left, with every sign of regard, he referred briefly 
and impressively to his own hopeless condition and to the extreme 
improbability of our ever meeting again in life, and then spoke, 
earnestly and feelingly, of our past relations, of the length of time 
during which we had acted together in the service of the State, 
of the occasions on which we had taken different views of the public 
interest and of the momentary excitements they had produced, 
dwelt upon the respect and kindness I had extended to him at all 
times, and assured me in very gratifying words of the favorable 
opinjons he had formed of my character. He then adverted to 
the subject of the journey upon which I had started, the new duties 
upon which I was about to enter, and in flattering terms, to results 
which might be anticipated from them if my future course was as 
discreet as the past had appeared to him to have been, and, with 
the expression of a sincere wish that my future life might be a 
happy one and that my political career might be crowned with com- 
plete success, he bade me a final and affectionate farewell. 
I need not say how cordially I reciprocated the assurances of 
respect and regard with which the dying patriot honored me, nor 
will I attempt to describe the satisfaction I derived from the cireum- 
stance that my residence at Albany, theretofore so stormy and harass- 
ing, had been closed by an interview which, in every respect save that. 
it was destined to be the last, was so truly ovatitying. 
My health had been rodinedl by the pressure of business to a state 
which rendered travelling painful, and the irsomeness of my jour- 


° MS, III, p. 10, 


ney was not a little aggravated by the accounts which I received 
from friends whom I met on my way of the condition of things at 
Washington. Mr. Woodbury arrived at New York after I had 
retired for the night, and knowing that I was to leave early in the 
morning, he obtained permission to see me in my bed-chamber. His 
enumeration of the friends who were dissatisfied with the forma- 
tion of the Cabinet, and the dispositions they had indicated, was 
rendered more imposing by my knowledge of his usual discretion in 
speaking of such things. Yet whilst I placed much confidence in 
his good sense and Pend to truth, I was well apprised of the extent 
of his disappointment in not having been himself selected for the 
Cabinet, as he, perhaps, ought to have been, and was therefore in- 
clined to make liberal] deductions from his description on account of 
the natural effects of such a condition of mind upon the views of 
most men. At Philadelphia I had a long and gloomy interview 
with Mr. and Mrs. Livingston also just from Washington. Mr. Liv- 
ingston’s situation was, in one respect, the reverse of Woodbury’s, as 
he held in his pocket President Jackson’s unconditional offer of the 
mission to France—the only place he desired to occupy. Yet their 
description of the Secontisuts state of things at the White House 
was notwithstanding still more emphasized than the first, especially 
in regard to matters which were peculiarly within the range of 
female cognisance and which, tho’ not of the highest, are still of 
considerable importance. On probing the sources of their somewhat 
_ dismal forebodings to the bottom, I was gratified to discover that 
_ Mr. Livingston’s confidence in the strong sense, perfect purity and 
- unconquerable firmness of the President, which I had all along re- 
q garded as the promising features of his character with reference to 
his new position, had not suffered any abatement. He was as well 
t satisfied as he ever had been that no man or set of men could ever 


' lead the General to do an unworthy action, and that his willing- 
hess to hear and respect counsel from those who might be better 
~ instructed than himself, in respect to particular points, might under 
; all circumstances be relied on. An apprehension, founded on the 
1 assumption that an influence was exerted over the President which 
_ would, in the natural course of things, in respect to the social phases 
_ of the Presidential Mansion, lead to degradation and contempt in 
E the eyes of foreigners and of good society in general, was found to 
| be the principal source of their fears. They “pete me at the 
" same time of the offer of the Mission to France and of their confident 
_ expectation that Mr. Livingston would be able to accept it. It was 
therefore only necessary to refer to the probability that they would 


_ be the persons most #xposed to panayences at a foreign court, from 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 229 
q 


0 he ar BOL ee eee ee en a a eee 


"me to the inference eat their Ane. was an Aerated one, 


230 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


made such to induce me to take early and effective steps to prevent 
or to remedy the evils they apprehended. ; 
Thus far were those intelligent and estimable people from fore- 
seeing what soon became obvious to qualified observers, that Presi- 7 
dent Jackson’s receptions at the Presidential Mansion would cer- — 
tainly not be considered inferior, either in the cost or brilliancy of ~ 
his entertainments or in the grace and dignity with which his guests — 
were received, as well by himself as by the female members of his 
family, or in the genuine hospitality which they dispensed, to those 
of any of his most distinguished predecessors. 
But my strongest “pose” was reserved for my arrival at New 
Castle. As our boat approached the wharf at that place I recog- 
nized among the crowd, as I expected to do, my particular friend 
Mr. McLane, with disappointment and deep mortification stamped 
upon every line of his intelligent countenance. His personal antici- 
pations in regard to the composition of the Cabinet had been higher 4 
and, as he and his friends supposed, better founded than those of Mr. 
Woodbury. He took my arm as I stepped on shore and proposed 
that we should walk on in advance of the stagecoach, which was 
sufficiently delayed to give us a tramp, not a little fatiguing to me 
in my state of health, but which gave him a fair opportunity to 
relieve his mind, so far as that could be done by “unpacking his 
heart with words.” He took the parole at once and kept it until” 
the coach overtook us. In the course of his excited harangue, for 
such it literally was, he described, in the earnest and energetic man- 
ner usual with him when deeply moved, the degraded condition to 
which he thought the administration already reduced thro’ the ad- 
vice of the evil counsellors by whom General Jackson was sur- 
rounded, and in conclusion referred to a letter that he had written 
to me at Albany immediately after the selection of the Cabinet. 
In that letter, after saying that such a Cabinet required no comment 
and that he could not see how it could command publie confidence, 
and raising a series of objections to the official arrangement, he sub- 
mitted to my reflections whether the interests of my friends and of 
the Country required of me the sacrifice of assisting in an attempt to 
repair its defects and to give strength to the administration, or 
whether I should not rather remain in my elevated position in the 
State of New York and leave these strange occurrences to run their 
course. As I had already resigned the office of Governor, to which 
he referred in his letter, he now spoke, with obvious hesitation, m 
respect to my throwing up that of Secretary of State, not recom 
mending such a course specifically but giving most cnriphaaliie assur- 
ances of the indispensable necessity of great changes in the existing 
organization of the Government as the only way by which that 
step could be avoided without subjecting myself to great discredit. 


AUMBOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 231 


_ There were unfortunately many others who had been prominent 
and active in the support of General Jackson’s election scarcely less 
dissatisfied with the Cabinet selections. The best known and most 
influential politicians of this description in Virginia and in South 
_ Carolina very generally shared in that feeling; and what made this 
_ matter more embarrassing to myself was the fact that they consti- 
_ tuted a class with whom my relations both personal and political 
_ had been the closest, who passed as my zealous friends and who 
_ had been from the beginning and to a man, in favor of my being 
_ placed at the head of the new Cabinet. General Hamilton, of South 
_ Carolina, a very prominent man amongst them, told my friend Cam- 
_ breleng, as he informed me by letter before I left Albany, that “if 
_ I went into the Cabinet I would cut my throat.” There was prob- 
_ ably not one of these malcontents more disappointed than myself 
_ by the composition of the administration. I had been, perhaps, at 
too great a distance to be conveniently consulted on the subject ° by 
_ the President elect, if he had been that way disposed, but my atten- 
_ tion had been throughout directed to other quarters. Except Mr. 
Ingham, the new Secretary of the Treasury, I had not heard that 
_ either of the successful gentlemen had been proposed for the Cabi- 
net before I received the news of their selection. It was besides not 
in my power to regard some of them, though deficient neither in 
_ character nor in social or general respectability, as well adapted to 
-a satisfactory performance of the duties to which they had been 
appointed. Thus situated I could not allow any considerations not 
_ involving a sacrifice of personal honor to prevent my acceptance of 
_ the President’s invitation, and I continued my progress to the seat 
_ of Government with the same determination with which I had left 
Albany, that of contributing all in my power to secure the success 
of the administration. 

It was after dark when I reached Washington and the coach had 
barely arrived at the hotel before it was surrouned by a crowd of ap- 
plicants for office whose cases had been deferred until the Cabinet 
_ should be full. They followed me into and filled my room, where, 

from a sofa on which my health compelled me to le, I informed them 
that it was my intention to pay my respects to the President within 
an hour, until the expiration of which time I would listen patiently 
to any thing they desired to say. They proceeded accordingly to 
communicate their respective wishes, and when it became necessary 
to close the interview I informed them that I would carefully ex- 
‘amine the papers in such cases as belonged to my department and 
would endeavor to do justice to their applications, but that I was in- 
disposed to see persons who desired appointments seeking them in 


° MS. III, p. 15. 


bay AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCLA=aa 


person at the seat of Government and disinclined to report in faval 
of such as did not leave their cases to the justice of the President 
and go home, 

A solitary lamp in the vestibule and a single candle in the Presi- © 
dent’s office gave no promise of the cordiality with which I was, 
notwithstanding, greeted by General Jackson on my visit to the 
White House. I found no one with him except his intimate friend 
Major Lewis. His health was poor, and his spirits depressed as 
well by his recent bereavement of his wife as by the trials of per- 
sonal and political friendship which he had been obliged to en-— 
counter in the organization of his Cabinet. This was our first meet- 
ing as political friends and it was certainly a peculiar feature in that 
interview and no insignificant illustration of his nature that he 
received with most affectionate eagerness, at the very threshold of — 
his administration, the individual destined to oceupy the first place — 
in his confidence, of whose character his only opportunities to learn — 
anything by personal observation had been pr esented during periods 
of active political hostility. 

He soon noticed my exhaustion from sickness and travel and, con- | 
siderately postponing ail business to an appointed hour of pe next 
day, recommended me to my bed. 

From that night to the day of his death the relations, sometimes 
official, always political and personal, were inviolably maintained 
ermeen that noble old man and myself, the cordial and confidential 
character of which can never have been surpassed among public 
men. The history of those associations I propose to relate and to 
accompany it with an unreserved publication of our entire corre- 
spondence. But before entering upon this work it may be useful 
that I should give a succinct account of our personal and political 
intercourse from the commencement of our acquaintance to the time 
of his elevation to the Presidency. . 

I was presented to General Jackson for the first time, at Wash- 
ington in the winter of 1815-16, whilst on a visit to that city, to 
which place he had been called by the exciting contest that grew 
out of his Seminole campaign. Partaking of the extraordinary in- 
terest which he inspired wherever he went I sought an imtroduc- 
tion to him at the very moment of his departure for Tennessee, and 
did not see him again until I met him, in 1823, on the floor of the 
Senate of the United States, of which body he had become a member. 
Although we agreed better in our fundamental opinions and prin- 
ciples than I did with many with whom I was acting, it so happened 
that we had taken different sides on occasions of an exciting eharac- 
ter. He visited New York at a period when the contest between 
Goy. DeWitt Clinton and a majority of the republican party of tha 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. wae 


_ State stood at fever-heat, and having been invited to a public din- 
ner by the Tammany Society, which constituted one of the leading 
interests in opposition to Mr. Clinton, he gave a toast, when called 
npon, highly complimentary to that gentleman. We were of course 
very much stirred up at being thus snubbed, as we considered it, 
by the gallant General—more so doubtless than the occasion called 
for. He not only was no politician, but was, at that time, openly 
and zealously advocating the mitigation if not the entire suppres- 
sion of party divisions amongst us. It may be very well doubted 
whether he made himself at all acquainted with the nature or extent 
of the controversy in which he seemed to take a part. We invited 
him as a meritorious Chief who had rendered the Country great serv- 
ice, we could not think him capable of offering an insult to his 
entertainers, we could well afford to allow the right of opinion 
in its fullest latitude, and there was, it must now be confessed, 
enough in the character and public services of Mr. Clinton to jus- 
tify the General’s admiration and respect, even admitting the im- 
putation of political infidelity which we preferred against him to 
have been well founded. The General was, moreover, in those days, 
as I have just intimated, an advocate of Mr. Monroe’s amalgama- 
tion policy, which we, on the other hand, regarded as the gross 
delusion which it proved to bean opinion in which Jackson, be- 
_ fore the end of his first Presidential term, not only cordially con- 
curred but was inclined at times to carry too far in the opposite 


“ 
: direction. 


ee ee ee 


He made his appearance in the Senate in the double character 
of one of the Senators from Tennessee and her candidate for the 
_ office of President of the United States, and among those who op- 
_ posed his election to the latter place there was scarcely one more 
_ actively and zealously employed than myself; an opposition which 
_ extended alike to! Mr. Adams and to himself and which was neither 
_ relaxed nor intermitted until the final settlement of the question 
_ by the House of Representatives. But these differences did not 
produce the slightest trace: of ill blood between us. Our personal 
_ intercourse from the day we met in the Senate to the end of the 
severe Presidential canivass of 1824, was, on the contrary uniformly 
_kind and courteous, altho’ circumstances occurred which, unex- 
_ plained, were well calculated to put his self-control at least for the 
- moment, to severe tests. 

In November 1816, after Mr. Monroe’s elevation to the’ Presi- 
_ dency had become certain, General Jackson wrote a friendly letter 
_ to him in respect to the'formation of his Cabinet.* 


+See note to p. 198 ante, 


ee Te 
234 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Tag 


In that letter he said :—“ Every thing depends upon the selection 
of your ministry. Now is the time to exterminate that monster 
called party-spirit.” Whatever may then have been the real state 
of Mr. Monroe’s feelings in respect to the General’s advice, he did 
not deem its immediate adoption either safe or prudent. He had 
been elected as the nominee of a party caucus and as the successor 
of two Presidents in whose support° a similar agency had been — 
employed. To have pursued a course like that recommended to 
him by General Jackson, under such circumstances, and in the then 
state of public opinion, could not have failed to prove disastrous 
to his administration. He therefore wrote to the General an elab- 
orate answer, complimenting: his liberality but pointing out the ~ 
inexpediency of the course he had proposed. In 1821-2, when his — 
first term was about to expire and his re-election for the second 
had been carried, with only a single electoral vote against him in 
the whole Country, Mr. Monroe became, as I have elsewhere fully 
described, ready and anxious to carry into effect the policy recom- 
mended to him by the General four years before. The course pur- 
sued by his administration to that end was contrary to the general 
sentiment of the republicans and was met with particular and very — 
marked hostility at two points, as we have seen, to wit: im New 
York and Pennsylvania; the demonstrations against the Presi-— 
dent’s policy in the former state growing out of the appointment — 
of a postmaster at Albany and of the nomination of Irish,” an out 
and out federalist, for the office of Marshal of the Western District 
of Pennsylvania, in the latter. ; 

Both of the Pennsylvania Senators remonstrated earnestly with 
Mr. Monroe against this nomination on the express ground that 
it was made in the execution of that amalgamation policy to 
which they and their State were opposed. It was notwithstanding 
made and they carried the question to the Senate, where it was 
thoroughly canvassed, and by which body the nomination was 
rejected by a vote of 26 to 14; the dissentients being, of course, and 
to a man, republicans. To silence the opposition of Pennsylvania, 
the President, in the course of his discussions with the Senators from: 
that State, read to them the letter received in 1816 from General 
Jackson who was already locked upon as a probable candidate for 
the Presidency and understood to be the favorite of Pennsylvania. 
Mr. Monroe also, as it subsequently appeared, read the letter to 
several other ee of Congress to remove their objections to 
the policy he was pursuing. As the letter was shewn to the Pennsyl- 
vania Senators, in connection with the performance of their public 
duties, and in no sense confidentially, they both spoke of the sub 


° MS. III, p. 20. 1 William B. Irish. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 235 


_ ject without reserve. The interest of the public in the matter of 
course increased with the improvement of the General’s prospects 
of success and the affair soon got into the newspapers and caused 
a great sensation, particularly in the Western District of Pennsyl- 
vania, which was the stronghold and headquarters of the demo- 
eratic party of that State and already much excited by it. The 
Crawford newspapers circulated far and near the charge that Jack- 


son had written such a letter. The papers which supported Jackson, 


well aware that, if written, it could not be successfully defended in 
that State, denied that the General had written or that Mr. Monroe 
had received any letter of the kind. 

Messrs. Lowrie and Findley, the Senators, were called out from 
all parts of the State. Findlay, who was in favor of Jackson, re- 
fused to say what he knew whilst Lowrie, who was a Crawford 
man, although he had taken no steps towards a publication of the 
facts, stated them publicly and truly. George Krehmer, the ever 
active friend of Gen. Jackson, applied to Mr. Monroe for infor- 
mation and he authorized him to say that it was false that the Gen- 
eral had ever written to him such a letter as Krehmer described. 
Gen. Jackson substantially authorized Krehmer to say the same 
_ thing, declaring at the same time that he had reserved no copy 
_ of the letter and spoke only from memory. These denials were 
_ literally well founded because Krehmer’s description of the letter 
was materially variant from the letter itself. 

‘A protracted correspondence ensued, the parties to which were 
the President, his son-in-law, Mr. Hay, Gen. Jackson and Mr. 
Lowrie. The latter removed the technical grounds upon which 
these denials were founded by setting forth the contents of the 
letter according to his recollection of them and as he had declared 
them to be and called, in respectful terms, upon Mr. Monroe to 
publish Gen. Jackson’s letter, a demand which he thought him- 
_ self entitled to make as it had been shewn to him to influence his 
' course in the performance of a public duty and without reserve. 
Mr. Monroe refused to explain. Lowrie was thus brought in 
collision, upon a question of veracity, with two of the most power- 
_ ful men in the Country, and the Jackson newspapers, as well as 


those in favor of other candidates, regarding Crawford as the 


_ strongest rival of their respective favorites and desiring therefore 
_ to reduce his strength, attacked him [Lowrie] with much violence. 
_ My opportunities to become acquainted with his [Lowrie] character 
_ were very ample and I never met with a more upright and virtuous 
man in the course of my life. 

Whilst the affair was in this condition, Mr. Lowrie’s mail was one 
_ morning laid upon his desk, by one of the pages of the Senate, at a 


2 Walter Lowrie and William Findlay. 


236 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 


moment when my attention happened to be directed towards him. 
Sitting next to him I perceived that, on opening one of his letters, 
he turned very pale. To my enquiry as to the cause he replied quickly 
“See this!”, and on examining the letter we found, to our amaze- 
ment, that it enclosed a copy of Mr. Monroe’s reply to the letter 
from Gen. Jackson which the former had shewn to himself and 
Findlay. The copy was partly in Mr. Monroe’s handwriting and the 
residue in that of his son-in-law, Mr. Hay, who had published several 
violent attacks upon Lowrie. It sustained everything that had been 
said by the latter and was accompanied by a brief anonymous note 
to the effect that the writer had been induced to send it to him by — 
seeing the injustice which he was suffering. 

Struck by the delicacy of the affair in all its aspects and by a sense 
of the extent to which the possession of such a paper, in the absence — 
of a satisfactory explanation as to the manner in which it had come 
to Mr. Lowrie’s hands, might be made to increase his embarrass- 
ments, I held the letter in my hand and beckoned to Mr. Macon to 
come to my seat. He did so immediately when I informed him of 
its contents, that I had seen Mr. Lowrie receive and open it, that he ~ 
had immediately placed the enclosure in my hands and that Mr. 
Lowrie and myself asked the favor of him to take the papers into 
his possession, to authorize Mr. Lowrie to state publicly that they 
were in his keeping and to refer those who desired to see them to 
him for that purpose. Of the character of that venerable and just 
man, whose fame was and is co-extensive with our Country and 
whom all who, knew him honored and esteemed for his exemplary 
purity, I have already spoken. There was perhaps no feature more 
marked in his long and creditable life than his freedom from the 
personal contentions to which public men are so often exposed. Pur- 
suing the even tenor of his way he seldom meddled in other men’s 
affairs or became a party to their quarrels, but on this occasion, and 
without ‘hesitation he replied“ Yes! yes! Give them to,me. 
Lowrie is an honest young man—he has had great injustice done — 
him, Give me the papers and I will stand by him be the conse- 
quences what they may.” I gave him the letter, which had upon — 
it the Richmond, Va., post mark, and which with its enclosures, he 
placed in the inner pocket of his coat, buttoning it up tightly as he 
walked away to his seat. 

Lowrie immediately apprised Mr. Monroe by a note that he was 
in possession of a copy of his reply to Gen. Jackson’s letter and of the 
manner in which it had come into his hands. He avowed his inten- 
tion to keep it as a protection against the charges whieh had been 
made against him, to a considerable extent with Mr. Monroe’s co- 
operation, and urged him again to relieve him from the painful di- 


lemma in which he was placed, by the publication of Jackson’s let- 
_ ter; a document which Mr. Monroe had dedicated to public use by 
_ employing it as an excuse for his official course, to which act and 
its subsequent denial the difficulties in which Lowrie had been in- 
volved were fairly attributable. He also sent his friends Judge 
Baldwin and Speaker Stevenson! to the President to ascertain 
whether he had received his note and what he intended to do in the 
_ premises. Mr. Monroe’s reply on both occasions was simply that he 
_ had not decided to take any further steps in the matter. °By this 
new phase of the controversy in which Lowrie had heretofore had 
the worst in consequence of the weight and power of his opponents, 
the tables were turned against them. His friends justified his reten- 
tion of the letter on the ground of its necessity to his defense in a 
matter in which it was now evident to all that he was the injured 
party and no proceedings could have been instituted to compel its 
surrender which would not disclose its contents. Nor was the dissat- 
isfaction of General Jackson with the course that had been pursued, 
which had been obvious from the beginning, at all diminished by 
the turn it had now taken. When he gave the advice in question he 
was Commander-in-Chief of the Army, with a soldier’s antipathy 
to party politics and not regarding himself, in all probability, as 
_ within the range of Presidential candidates. When, several years 
after it was written, the use was made of his letter which produced 
all this evil, he was very likely to become one and was actually nomi- 
nated by his State a few months afterwards, and his strongest sup- 
port was believed to be in Pennsylvania, where the doctrines he was 
charged with advancing were especially unacceptable, quite as much 
so as In any State in the Union, and where from the circumstances 
_ of the case the knowledge of their having been so advanced was in a 
fair way to be brought to every man’s door. Besides the great and 
well understood change in his position, he may have entertained a 
different opinion upon the point, as was certainly the case after- 
wards. All these things were open to Mr. Monroe’s observation and 
"reflection and it is difficult to believe that General Jackson was 
_ otherwise than dissatisfied that the President should have overlooked 
; or disregarded them, when, after the lapse of years and without 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. gai. 
t 
; 


_ even asking his consent, he employed the advice given him in the way 
and under the circumstances, I have described. 

Doubtless in other respects the course that the matter had taken 
_ Was very galling to the General. He hated concealments. There 
was ho trait in his character more obvious to others or more proudly 
and justly asserted by himself than his fearlessness in declaring 


( 


1Henry Baldwin of Connecticut and Andrew Stevenson. ° MS. III, p. 25. 


oe aa 
238 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. ; “4 


his opinions and his readiness to bear any responsibility attaching — 
to the avowal of them. With the knowledge that I now have of 
him, in that respect, I can well understand the mortification he 
endured from seeming to be privy and consenting to an evasion 
in regard to his opinions, and the correspondence between him and 
Mr. Monroe plainly discloses the existence of this chagrin. 

Mr. Krehmer once more stepped forward and addressed him on 
the subject. In the General’s reply, which was throughout respect- 
ful to Lowrie, after saying that his correspondence with Mr. Monroe 
was private and confidential, although denying the version of his 
letter which he erroneously understood Mr. Lowrie to have given 
to it, he broke through the entanglements into which he had suf- — 
fered himself to be drawn by a species of special pleading foreign 
to his nature and habits by ace that his advice to Mr. Monroe 
had been to select for his Cabinet “men of probity and talents with- ~ 
out regard to party.” This was the substance of the advice con- — 
tained in his letter to the President now expressed with more caution — 
and in a way well calculated to make favorable impressions on the 
minds of large portions of the People. i 

Having thus relieved himself from the quibbles that had been — 
resorted to in his behalf by inferior minds, he said, “ My opinions — 
and sentiments such as they have been written or expressed, at any — 
time, each and every one are at all times welcome to. In public — 
or in private letters I but breathe the sentiments I feel and which 
my judgment sanctions, and no disposition will ever be entertained — 
by me either to disguise or suppress them.” 

He also informed Mr, Krehmer that Mr, Monroe had placed all 
his letters, at his own instance, in the hands of Major Eaton, with 
a view to their immediate publication. They were published and — 
everything alleged by Mr. Lowrie in regard to the contents of the 
one read to him was fully sustained by the letter itself, and his 
course was not only fully vindicated before the Country but left 
impressions on the minds of his brother Senators which sought and — 
soon found an opportunity for their gratification by his election to — 
the profitable and honorable office of Secretary of the Senate. This 
place he held for many years during the most exciting periods in 
our politica] history and discharged its duties with credit to himself 
and to the satisfaction of every member of the body; at least I 
never heard the slightest complaint, from any source, of his official 
conduct and I have no doubt that he might have continued in the 
position, if he had desired it, to the present day. It was in refer- 
ence to him that John Randolph uttered the witty paradox, which 
contained an undisputed truth, “that altho’ he could neither read 
nor write he was the best clerk that any public body was ever 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 239 


favored with!” His reading was certainly not of the best and his 
_ penmanship egregious, but there was in him beside punctuality, in- 
dustry and order, a personal amiability which won the hearts, and 
_ a firm integrity and sound sense which commanded the respect and 
_ confidence of all the Senators. 
__ His seat, while Senator, was, as I have said, next to mine and 
that of General Jackson directly before us. Altho’ well advised of 
the extent to which Mr. Lowrie had been sustained and counselled 
_ by me thro’ the trying positions in which he had been placed, the 
General seldom took his seat in the morning, especially whilst the 
_ matters of which I have been speaking were in progress, without 
_ exchanging friendly salutations and shaking hands with both of 
_us. His respect for Lowrie was doubtless increased by the fact that 
the latter called upon him the moment the affair was made public, 
_ gave him an account of the contents of the letter read to him by 
_ Mr. Monroe, as they afterwards appeared, justified himself in 
_ speaking of the matter as he had done, but denied having had any 
_ agency in bringing the matter into the newspapers. The General 
_ was pleased with his candor and obvious sincerity and assured him 
that he should never object to let the letter speak for itself by its 
publication. , 
_ I had good reasons to know that he cherished feelings of warm 
regard towards Mr. Lowrie to the last and, at the time, I was well 
_ satisfied that the whole transaction, so far from exciting his prej- 
_ udices against either impressed him most favorably towards both 
of us. 
Gen. Jackson’s position in respect to the Tariff of 1824, acted 
_ upon on the eve of the Presidential election, was an embarrassing 
one. Pennsylvania, a strong tariff State, had been among the first 
_ to embrace his cause and she had done so with great zeal and 
_ power. A still larger portion of his strength was supposed to lie in 
the Southern and South Western States, which were all anti-tariff. 
_ He entered Congress with a general bias in favor of protection but 
” with several reservations, the most prominent among which was a de- 
sire to limit Legislative encouragement to articles necessary to the de- 
fence of the Country in time of War. Altho’ averse to the prostitu- 
‘tion of a question so deeply affecting the interests of the Country 
by using it for mere partisan purposes, he was, at the same time, 
| unwilling to submit quietly to such an application of it by his 
| eMemies to his own prejudice. His military career, peculiar and 
difficult as was its character, had given him a spirit of watchfulness 
i regard to the movements of his enemies which was revived by 


sylvania, his Northern head-quarters, and the anti-tariff States of 
the South and stimulated into action by the obvious and persevering 


240 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


efforts of his opponents to prejudice him, thro’ that channel, in the 
estimation of both. In this dilemma, and following his natural and — 
always strong impulses to defeat the machinations of his enemies, 
he assumed a position in regard to it more equivocal than any he 
had ever occupied on any public question, if not the only one in ~ 
his career to which such an epithet could have been applied with — 
any shew of reason. He declared himself in favor of a “judicious 
tariff ””—an avowal that was no sooner published than Mr. Clay at-— 
tempted to scandalize it, for its ambiguity, by a characteristic shrug 
of his shoulders, a toss of his head and the counter-declaration— 
“ well, by , 1am in favor of an znjudicious tariff !” 

The Tariff Bill of 1824, as it came from the House and was re- 
ported by the Senate Committee of Manufactures, contained a 
clause imposing a duty of 44 cents on every square yard of cotton 
bagging imported into the United States—a provision understood 
to have been specially designed to favor large establishments for 
the manufacture of that° article at Lexington, Kentucky. This 
provision was particularly obnoxious to the cotton growing States 
of Georgia, North and South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and 
Tennessee, upon. whose votes the General’s supporters relied with 
confidence and the People of which were among his most zealous 
friends. The numerous supporters of Mr. Calhoun in those States, 
between whom and those of Mr. Clay—including the respective 
Chiefs—there existed, at that time, the most bitter animosity, per- 
sonal as well as political, united with the friends and supporters of 
Mr. Crawford not only in opposing the entire bill but in denouncing 
this part of it with special vehemance. They characterized it as a 
tribute extorted from the cotton growing states to enrich Mr. Clay’s 
Kentucky pets, and the fact that those were the principal if not the’ 
only manufacturers of cotton bagging in the United States gave 
great force to their charges. These circumstances adding the force of 
personal and partisan prejudices to a fixed hostility to the policy of 
protection raised their oppugnancy to this particlar branch of it to 
feverheat and led to frequent and earnest remonstrances against the 
support that they feared General Jackson intended to give to it. 
They often called him from: his seat, and as that was directly in 
front of mine and mine on the outside row, not a few of their con- 
ferences unavoidably took piace in my hearing. , 

The division of the Senate upon the Bill was known to be a 
very close one and great pains were taken by its more zealous 
friends to impress its supporters with a sense of the danger of 
losing it if material amendments were permitted to pass that body. 
The General so understood the matter and had made up his mind 


y ° MS. III, p. 30. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 241 


to go for the Bill, as it stood, notwithstanding his repugnance to 
the cotton-bagging duty and the anxious wish of so many of his 
friends that he and his colleague, Major Eaton, should cause its 
rejection by their votes, which they had it in their power to do. 

_ When the cotton-bagging clause was reached Mr. Macon moved 
_ to strike out altogether and when the ayes and noes were taken 
upon that motion I, who had until that moment in obedience to 
the wishes of my State, voted for the other parts of the Bill, an- 
_ swered in the affirmative, in consequence of which the vote on strik- 
_ ing out stood, ayes 23, noes 24; the General and his colleague both 
voting with the majority. Perceiving at a glance that my course 
threw the responsibility of the retention of .the clause upon his 
own vote, he turned around and under evident excitement ex- 
_ claimed—“ You give way, Sir!” I replied, “No, Sir, I have been 
_ from the beginning opposed to this clause and informed Gov. 
_ Dickerson, when he reported the Bill, that I should vote against 
it unless the duty was greatly reduced. Subsequent reflection led 
me to regard this provision as an exceedingly exceptionable one 
and I finally determined to oppose it in any shape, and so informed 
_ the Governor.”? Before I had time to finish what I intended to 
say he stopped me and earnestly asked my pardon for meddling 
in a matter with which he had no right to interfere, declared that 
' however great might be his disappointment at my vote, which had 
drawn from him, under the impulse of the moment, the remark 
he had made, he ought not to have forgotten that that vote was 
_ my own and that he, at all events, had no right to call it in ques- 
_ tion; and he pressed me, with ach, earnestness, to say that I was 
< shod with his apology, which I did. 

_ The Senate almost immediately adjourned and the excitement 
' caused by the affair was even greater than could have been antici- 
pated. The discontent of some among the offended friends of the 
_ General soon found a vent. As my candidate for the Presidency, 
’ Mr. Crawford was a citizen of a cotton growing State they saw, in 
the transaction, a plan to weaken their candidate and to strengthen 
- our own, his most formidable competitor, in those localities, and I 
" soon discovered, to my mortification, that a few of the friends of 
Mr. Crawford had not been backward in countenancing that idea 
| by their encomiums upon the adroitness of the movement. I had 
not been, however, actuated by any such motive or by any other feel- 
ing than one of disgust at the nakedness and extravagance of the 
roposed bonus to Companies which had been formed to make money, 
hich were without just claims to so large a share of Legislative 
vor, but which there was every reason to believe were at the time 
in the receipt of very liberal profits. 

127483°—vor 2—20-——16 


249 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


So far was I from wishing to encrease Gen. Jackson’s embarrass- 
ments, of much of which I had been an involuntary witness, that T 
had been on the contrary, so favorably impressed by his noble bear- 
ing in that very matter and by the promptitude and good feeling 
with which he atoned for his abrupt address to me, by his whole 
conduct during the exciting scénes of the Lowrie correspondence, 
and by his general bearing towards me, an undeviating opponent in 
the Presidential canvass, that my first impulse, on perceiving the 
excitement that had sprung up, was a desire to aid in relieving him. 
In this state of mind I approached him, on his appearance in the 
Senate, on the following morning, referred to the proceedings of the — 
previous day and to the construction placed upon them by some of 
his friends and, to my great mortification, sanctioned, at least to 
some extent, by a few of mine, admitted that under existing cireum- 
stances, I ought not to be surprised by such interpretations on the 
part of zealous and excited politicians, but assured him that they 
were nevertheless entirely unfounded. I then stated to him, more 
fully than I was permitted to do on the previous day the extent and 
character of my objections to the duty, reminded him that after the 
Bill was reported to the Senate Mr. Macon, after so close a vote, 
would undoubtedly renew his motion which would bring the ques- — 
tion up again after the expiration of a week or two, that I would not 
be disappointed if other members by that time took the same view 
of the matter that I had done and that I sincerely hoped that he 
would be of the number. 

As I anticipated the motion was thus renewed after the Bill had 
been reported to the Senate from the Committee of the Whole; 
[John] Holmes, of Maine, changed his vote, as did also Gen. Jackson, 
and the clause was stricken out by a vote of 25 to 22. Gov. Dickerson, 
the Chairman of the sub-Committee, made the greatest efforts to re- 
store it, but with no other effert than to induce Mayor Eaton? the 
General’s colleague, who had made a speech in favor of the clause, 
to vote against it also. The ferment among the General’s cotton- 
growing friends subsided, and the subject passed from the public 
mind. 

Of the failure to elect a President and the choice by the House 
of Representatives at the next session of Congress I have already 
spoken. Gen. Jackson resigned his seat in the Senate at its close 
and retired to the Hermitage, where he awaited, with calmness and 
dignity, the judgment of the People upon the conduct of the House 
of Representatives. Nothing transpired during the session to change 
or affect our relations either personal or political save the natural 
tho’ silent influence of a common defeat to increase mutual good 
will and sympathy. 


1John Henry Haton. 


ali 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 243 


From the day we parted at Washington to the evening on which 
I waited on him to enter upon the duties of the office to which he had 
appointed me there had been no personal intercourse between us, 
nor any correspondence or communication in any form, save a formal 
letter from him introducing one of his friends, one or two letters 
to him and the Nashville Committee in reply to calls for my opinion 
as to the proper course to be. pursued in respect to certain points in 
the canvass,' all of which will be found in the correspondence here- 
with published, his letter of invitation to become a member of his 
Cabinet and my acceptance of it. The first information he received 
of my determination to support him, which was early formed, could 
therefore, as has been elsewhere stated, have been only derived from 
the newspapers or from the letters of others. 


+A letter of Aug. 8, 1828, from W. B. Lewis asking for political advice is in the Van 
Bureau Papers, but no letter of this nature from Van Buren is now to be found either 
in the Van Buren or Jackson Papers. 

2It was Van Buren’s intention to accompany this autobiography with selected letters 
from his papers an intention he did not carry out. 


> ae 


CHAPTER XXII. 


3 


On my arrival at Washington I found a very large number of 
letters, addressed to me from different parts of the Country by 
our friends, speaking of the state of public opinion im their re- — 
spective vicinities in relation to the formation of the Cabinet and — 
subsequent acts of the Administration. °I will not give a detailed — 
description of their contents which were, without any exception — 
that I can remember, of the most gloomy character. This was per- — 
haps the natural result of the circumstances which attended the 
beginning of the new Government. A very large majority of the — 
supporters of President Jackson in Congress and of the active — 
politicians who had been drawn to the seat ef Government to wit-— 
ness the ceremonies of the Inauguration were deeply dissatisfied — 
with the first steps taken by the President of their choice. In very — 
many instances their discontent was aggravated by private griefs, 
in more by the disappointment of friends for whose advancement — 
they were solicitous and in not a few by sincere and disinterested © 
sorrow in finding high anticipations dashed to the ground, as they 
supposed, by the formation of a Cabinet of which as a whole, they — 
could not approve. This influential mass embracing a large por-— 
tion of the respectability and talents of our party, in returning to 
their respective States spread the opinion formed at Washington — 
broadcast throughout the Country. The views they took of the 
matter and the opinions they had formed unhappily, to a great 
and influential extent, flowed into ears prepared, not to say, pre- 
disposed, to credit them. General Jackson was not the choice of — 
the politicians, as a body, of any considerable portion of the States. 
Those of them who had enlisted in the support of his competitors 
Crawford, Clay, Calhoun, for a season, and Adams, at the pre- 
vious election, during that excited canvass had worked their minds 
into the strongest convictions of the truth of the impressions they 
had at the first imbibed of his unfitness for the place. These had — 
been to a great extent, worn off by the collisions and still greater 
excitement of the recent election, leaving the subjects of them, 
however, liable to be more easily carried away by the first ad- 
verse current and they constituted the class to take active parts 
on such occasions who look narrowly into the action of men in 
power and interfere with their proceedings thro’ epistolary and 
personal remonstrances. 


° MS. III, p. 35. 
244 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 945 


_ It was doubtless from this class of the President’s constituents 
_ that these complaints mainly proceeded. The judgment of the 
masses was still in abeyance. 

_ The duties imposed upon me in respect to these communica- 
_ tions were of an extremely delicate and responsible character. Their 
authors had a right to expect that their views should be submitted 
_ to the President whom they had assisted to elect and they could 
not perhaps have selected a more appropriate channel for that 
purpose. They told their. story “free, offhand” and the remon- 
strances and advice were not always or indeed generally expressed in 
_ terms which excluded the idea of reproach; and the peculiar delicacy 
of the task of submitting such to the President, by one whose relations 
with him were of a character I have described mine to have been, 
was not a little increased by the circumstances that for the most 
part they came from men with whom I had been closely allied 
in opposition to General Jackson, at the preceding election. My 
_ personal association with him as a political friend was of but a 
few days standing and tho’ cordial on both sides was not, for the 
reasons I have intimated, at first entirely free from the embarrass- 
ments arising from antecedent events. I have moreover alluded 
to his state of body and mind, ill adapted to exhibit his character 
and disposition to the best advantage ; still every thing that I saw 
_ and heard of and from him impressed me in the strongest manner 
with a conviction of his sincerity, integrity and straightforward 
truthfulness. 

I therefore determined to rely without reservation or hesitancy 
upon those qualities, to submit in their strongest aspect the adverse 
views of the course he was pursuing which were entertained by 
many who had supported his election and to leave our future re- 
lations to the judgment he should form upon the whole subject. 
With these views I selected from the mass of letters referred to 
and sent to the President one from Thomas Ritchie, the Editor of 
the Richmond Enquirer, then regarded, and I doubt not correctly, as 
my warm personal and political friend, who tho’ he had supported 
General Jackson with much power ad effect in the last election, 
had, with myself, opposed him before and in a manner and under 
-cireumstances calculated to excite in him for the moment, strong 
feelings of dissatisfaction. It was enclosed with a note from iniyecl€- 


4 ~ Martin VAN BUREN TO THE PRESENT [ANDREW JACKSON]. 

_ My Dear Sr, . 
On my return from your house last evening, I found the enclosed among 
some letters which I had not before been able to examine. Upon a careful con- 
‘sideration of its contents I find it to be so evidently written for your perusal 
as to make it something like a duty on my part to lay it before you: and 
I do that the more readily from an entire consciousness that you wish to 


Y 


246 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


learn all that may be said with decency in respect to your administration by 
those interested in its success. I have known Mr. Ritchie long and intimately — 
and am well satisfied that there is not a man of purer public spirit in the 
Country. The disinterestedness of his views with the great ability that has 
characterized his paper have given it an influence infinitely greater than any 
other press in the Union. Whatever you may think of the wisdom or justice 
of the opinions expressed by such a man I am quite sure that they will — 
receive from you a liberal and respectful consideration. 

Not being certain, from the great press that is made upon me, that I shall 
be able to see you today, I have thought proper to enclose it and will receive — 
it again at your perfect leisure. 

Yrs. affectionately 
March 31st, 1829. M. V. B.* 
The PRESENT. : 


| 
: 
| 

THomas RitcHIE To M. VAN BUREN. 
DEAR Si, 

This is in all probability the last letter I shall have the honor of addressing 
you for many years to come. Our respective situations, though vastly dif 
ferent from each other, make such a correspondence delicate on both sides. 
A Secretary of State has his own duties to perform, and so has an Editor 
however humble he may be. I need not be more explicit, but I cannot reconcile © 
it to myself to remain altogether silent amid the scenes which I have wit- 
nessed. You are the only member of the administration with whom I am ac- 
quainted. I therefore address myself to you. If there be anything in this 
letter which you may think it proper to submit to Gen. Jackson you are au- 
thorized to lay it before him,—and him only. In truth I would have addressed 
myself directly to him, but for my anxiety to preserve even the appearance 
of that respect which I sincerely feel for his character and himself. 

You, Sir, or perhaps Gen. Jackson, if he should see this letter, may charge 
the writer with arrogance, impertinence, call it what you will, for intruding 
my opinion, unasked and unacceptable upon the grave matters of which it 
proposes to treat. I am content to abide by your severest censures, as I am 
satisfied with my own motives. This letter is dictated by the most friendly 
feelings. It is from a sincere desire that you should be possessed of the state 
of public opinion in this part of the Country that I break thro’ all the rules 
of etiquette. 3 

You know how anxiously I desired the election of General Jackson. My 
most intimate friends have witnessed the joy which his success inspired. I 
regarded [it] not simply as the downfall of a party which had corrupted the 
purity of elections and abused its power for its own little purposes, but as a new 
epoch in the history of our Country,—as opening a bright prospect of wise and 
constitutional principles. I need not say, Sir, that I had nothing to gain except 
as one of ten millions of people. I have nothing to ask—the administration 
has nothing to offer which I will accept. 

Why this bright prospect is somewhat clouded over within the short space 
of thirty days I will not enter into a long recapitulation to explain. I pass 
over the Cabinet. It has disappointed many of the sincerest of the President's 
friends. In the same proportion, that it dispirited them has it raised the hopes 
of their enemies. They have already raised the standard of opposition. and a 
rival, who was abandoning all his views in utter despair, was immediately ani- 
mated to enter the lists again. I do not speak at random when I make these 
. assertions. The admirable Inaugural Address, however, counteracted these 


1In the Van Buren Papers. 


> tae 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 247 


effects ° in some degree. It gave us all additional spirits. But, I speak it with 
profound regret, the subsequent appointments have thrown a cloud over our 
friends which it will require some time and great wisdom to dispel. We are 
sorry to see the personal friends of the President appointed; we lament to see 
so many of the Hditorial Corps favored with the patronage of the Administra- 
tion. A single case would not have excited so much observation,—but it really 
looks as if there were a systematic effort to reward Hditorial Partizans, which 
will have the effect of bringing the vaunted Liberty of the Press into a sort of 
contempt. I make allowance for the situation of these gentlemen. I know 
most of them are able and qualified. They have fought manfully to put out a 
corrupt coalition—They have fought with the halter round their necks; and 
not, as I have done, so much in the country of friends, as of enemies. I allow 
for all these things, and still the truth cannot be disguised that the press, 
which shrinks like the sensitive plant from the touch of Executive Power, has 
been heedlessly handled. Invade the freedom of the press and the freedom ot 
election, by showering patronage too much on Editors of newspapers and on 
Members of Congress, and the rights of the People themselves are exposed to 
imminent danger. J know that this was not the motive of such appointments ; 
put I argue about effects: effects too not to be brought about by this administra- 
tion but by less worthy ones which are to succeed it. 

There is some difficulty under all new Administrations to know whom to 
put out and whom to put in; and it is the right use of patronage under such 
circumstances that constitutes one of the most delicate operations of Govern- 
ment. We should suppose that one pretty good rule was for the Chief Magistrate 
to consider offices not as made for himself, the gratification of his own feelings 
and the promotion of his own purposes, but as a public trust to be confided to 
the most worthy. I throw out this suggestion because I have seen too much 
stress laid upon the personal feelings of the President by some who did not 
sufficiently estimate the high station which he occupies. There is another 
thing. I go for reform,—but what is reform? Is it to turn out of office all 
those who voted against him, or who decently preferred Mr. Adams? Or is it 
not rather those who are incapable of discharging their duties, the drunken, 
the ignorant, the embezzler, the man who has abused his official facilities to 
keep Gen. Jackson out, or who are so wedded to the corruptions of office as to 
set their faces against all reform? Is it not to abolish all unnecessary offices 
and to curtail all unnecessary expenses? It surely is not to put out a good 
and experienced officer because he was a decent friend of J. Q. Adams, im 
order to put in a heated partizan of the election, of Gen. Jackson, which parti- 
zan chooses to dub himself on that account the friend of Reform. [I trust that 
such a spirit of Reform will not come near to us in Virginia. Should any one 
be seeking the loaves and. fishes of federal office in Virginia I hope the Admin- 
istration will be very careful whom they may put out to serve such an office- 
seeker. There is no man whom I would touch in this city. 

The course of appointments at Washington is calculated to cool and alienate 
some of our friends. The enemies of the Administration are on the alert. They 
are availing themselves of all our errors, while we are so situated that we are 
unable to justify or defend them. You can scarcely conceive the uneasiness 
which prevails. Will you excuse me for troubling you with the following Hx- 
tract, which I have received from Washington, from a profound obseryer of 
men and things. He is a warm friend of the President—and no Virginian :— 

“JT ean read the history of this Administration more clearly than I did the 


late one and I was in no respect disappointed in my views respecting its course 
SRURUREENA NAMA Lert eer inenCm es eS AU eR ER) ee NP) 
° MS. III, p. 40. 


248 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


“ 


and termination. Under the profession of Reform changes will be made to the 
public injury. Let the rule be once known and every man who was not an 
active partizan of Gen. Jackson will be brought within it. A great number of 
violent men, alike destitute, I fear, of principle and intelligence, will be thrown 
into conspicuous positions, in the excitement, and placed in offices of trust. 
High minded and talented men, in such a result, will, for a time, be thrown 
into the shade. The contest will be for office and not for principle. This will 
impair the moral force of our institutions at home and abroad, and may 
eventuate in their destruction. 

“Should the present Administration go down, as I fear it will, and should 
Clay come into power, on his system, I tremble for the Union. A scene of 

~ violence, reckless of consequences will then be the order of the day. This is a 
gloomy picture, and I wish to God I could persuade myself it is too highly 
colored. I see and understand perfectly all the movements made.” 

My heart aches as I make this Extract. Sincerely do I trust that its gloomy 
anticipations may be defeated, and that Gen. Jackson may lay down his power 
amid the loudest acclamations of a grateful people. I would do anything that 
was honorable and proper to lead to this result. But I have done. 

I beg you to make no answer to this letter. I write in haste and with pain. 
Perhaps I ought not to write it at all. 

I am, Sir, resp’y 

THOMAS RITCHIE.’ 

Marcu 27th 1829. 


Gen. Jackson’s note, returning to me the above letter, it will be 
seen bears date on the same day with my communication to him and 
was as follows: 


PRESIDENT JACKSON TO M. VAN BurEN2 


I have read the enclosed letter with attention and if the facts adverted to 
would warrant the conclusion the objections would he well founded. 

There has been as yet no important ease of removal except that of General 
Harrison; and I am sure if Mr. Ritchie has read the instructions given to our ’ 
Ministers, who were sent to Panama, he must think the recall of General 
Harrison not only a prudent measure but one which the interest of the Country 
makes indispensably necessary. I have referred to the case of Gen. Harrison 
only, because I cannot suppose Mr. Ritchie has any allusion to the auditors and 
comptrollers, who were dismissed not so much on account of their politics as 
for the want of moral honesty. 

The gentleman who has been selected to supply the place of Gen’l Harrison 
is, I believe, as well qualified, if not better, than any other who would have 
undertaken the mission to that Country. 

I would advise the answering of Mr. Ritchie’s letter; and in the most — 
delicate manner to put him on his guard with respect to letter writers from 
Washington. The letter he has extracted from, instead of being from my 
fr tend must be from some disappoined office hunter—one who merely professes 
‘to be my friend, or perhaps from a friend of Mr. Clay in disguise. 

How could this letter writer know what changes were to be made? How 
can he pretend to foretell, without knowing who are to be appointed, that 
the changes will be injurious to the public interest?—You may assure Mr. 
“Ritchie that his Washington correspondent knows nothing of what will 
“be the course ‘of’ the President on appointments, or he would have known 


1In the Van Buren Papers. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 249 


7 that the President has not nor will he ever make an appointment but with 
a view to the public good and the security of the fiscal concerns of the 
nation. He never has, nor will he appoint a personal friend to office unless 
by such appointment the public will be faithfully served. I cannot suppose 
_ Mr. Ritchie would have me proscribe my friends merely because they are 
so. If my personal friends are qualified and patriotic why should I not be 
permitted to bestow a few offices on them? For my own part I can see no 
well founded objections to it. In my Cabinet it is well known that there 

is but one man with whom I have had an intimate and particular acquaint- 

ance, tho’ they are all my friends in whom I have the greatest confidence. 
e even if it were as Mr. Ritchie supposes, I have only followed the ex- 
amples of my illustrious predecessors, Washington and Jefferson. They 
j took from their own State bosom friends and placed them in the Cabinet. 
_ Not only this but Gen’l Washington went even farther,—besides placing 
4 two of his friends from Virginia near him, he brought into his Cabinet 
7 Gen] Hamilton with whom, if possible, he was upon more intimate terms 

that I am with any member of my Cabinet. 

I have drawn your attention to these facts because I apprehend that our 

friend Mr. Ritchie° had not reflected upon the subject or he would not 
have suffered himself to be so easily alarmed. I have, I assure you, none 
of those fears and forebodings which appear to disturb the repose of Mr. 
_ Ritchie and his Washington correspondent. I repeat, it would be well for 
- you to write Mr. Ritchie and endeavour to remove his apprehensions of diffi- 
culty and danger. Say to him before he condemns the Tree he ought to 
wait and see its fruit. The people expect reform, they shall not be dis- 
appointed; but it must be judiciously done and upon principle. 
Yours respectfully 

A. JACKSON 
March 31st 1829 


Mr. VAN BUREN. 


In pursuance of the President’s suggestion I wrote to Mr. Ritchie 


as follows :— 

M. Van Buren to THoMAS RITCHIE. 
Private. 

ie WASHINGTON April 1, 1829. 

_ Dear Si, 
‘I am constrained by my respect for your opinions and esteem for your 
“personal character to disregard the delicate intimation at the close of your 
letter, so far at least as to acknowledge its receipt and to say a few words 
__as to its contents and the direction I have given it. 
: _ Owing to the great number of letters I found here at my arrival requiring 
my attention yours did not fall under my observation until Monday evening. 
‘After a careful examination of its contents I believed it was due as well to 
the President as to yourself to submit it to his perusal, which was done 
' on Tuesday morning. He read it with the best feelings and, on returning it 
‘to me, entered into a full explanation of the points to which you refer, with the 
utmost deference to the opinions you have advanced and respect for their 
author. 
_ I express his sentiments when I say that it is at all times most agreeable 
| to him to learn the candid opinions in relation to its course of those who 

‘take as I know you do, an interest in the success of his administration, and 


° MS. ITT, p. 45. 


250 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


to explain, as far as time and circumstances will permit, the principles by 
which every public act is regulated. 

Disclaiming all reserve with those whom he respects, it would be perfectly 
agreeable to him that you should be fully apprised of the motives and views 
that have actuated him in making the appointments to which you refer, and 
it will give me much pleasure should you visit this city (which I sincerely 
hope you may be able to do) to make you acquainted with both, under a 
sure conviction that you will admit the purity of the former if you cannot 
fully concur in the justness of the latter. 

Your own good sense will satisfy you of the impracticability of avoiding 
mistakes or giving any thing like universal satisfaction in the discharge of 
that portion of the Executive duties which relates to appointments, par- 
ticularly under existing circumstances. It is not in the wit of man to do so. 
I have been here but a short time and cannot of my own knowledge say 
anything as to past measures, but I have seen enough to satisfy me that no 
man ever entered upon the duties of the Chief Magistrate of this or any other 
Country with greater purity of purpose or a more entire devotion to the 
honor of the Government and the welfare of the Country than did the present 
incumbent, and I shall be grossly deceived if in the sequel, that is not the 
opinion of the great body of the American People. 

Hoping soon to have the pleasure of seeing you I have only to ask that 
the contents of this as well as the fact that it has been written will be con- 
fined to your own bosom, and to assure you of my great respect and regard.* 


If to these and such as these disturbing and discouraging matters 
be added the obstacles that were thrown into his path by means of 
the Eaton embroglio,—a private and personal matter which only 
acquired political consequence by its adaptation to the gratification 
of resentments, springing out of the formation of the Cabinet, and, 
as was supposed, to the elevation or depression of individuals = 
high positions,—we will be able to estimate justly the adverse in- 
fluences which surrounded President Jackson when he entered upon 
his official duties. : 

Having as military commander abstained from frequent councils 
of war, because he thought they were too apt to be used to screen 
the General from a proper and often most salutary responsibility, 
he carried something of the same feeling into his action as President. 
His disinclination to Cabinet councils, springing in part from this 
consideration was doubtless greatly strengthened by the circum- 
stance that he foresaw, at an early day, the division that soon after 
broke out among his constitutional advisors, from the source 
which I have alluded, and he fixed his course in the way he deemed 
best adapted to neutralize its effects. But whatever may have been 
his reasons the fact was that for a long time at least his practice 

was to have interviews with the heads of departments separately 
as often as was necessary to the proper discharge of the business 
entrusted to them and to ask the opinions of the other members alse 
separately when he desired them upon questions not belonging 


1 Draft in the Van Buren Papers. 


—_——a 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. PATE 


their departments. One of the New York newspapers, friendly to 
him, whose Editor had visited Washington in mid-summer, said, 
and I have no reason to doubt, correctly, that down to that period 
not 2 single Cabinet meeting had been had for the dispatch of 
business. 

Soon after my arrival I met him [the President] to talk over the 
general concerns of the State Department. The question that first 
presented itself for consideration was the condition of our represen- 
tation abroad, the expediency of changes, the extent to which it was 
desirable to carry them and the persons to be appointed. As soon as 
these points were broached he volunteered to say that he had com- 
mitted a great mistake in respect to portions of them for which he 
thought it was his duty to apologize——that as he had selected me 
to manage that branch of our national concerns I ought to have 
been consulted in respect to the changes to be made and the selec- 
tion of the ministers,—that instead of this, induced by considera- 
tions which he stated and which were, tho’ not consistent, as he 
admitted, with the proper transaction of business, creditable to 
his heart, he had disposed of the two most important Missions by 
offering that to England to Mr. Tazewell and the French Mission 
to Mr. Livingston. Having been apprised by Mr. Livingston hin- 
self of these steps I was of course prepared to give my Views in 
respect to them, and admitting, as I did cheerfully, that there were 
no two gentlemen in the circle of his friends better entitled to 
such a compliment as he had paid them or in whose behalf my per- 
sonal feelings would, on suitable occasions, be more cordially en- 
listed, I yet felt bound to say that, having regard to the character 
of the business to be attended to at those courts, viz: the settle- 
ment of the long pending and greatly complicated questions be- 
tween us and England in respect to the West India Trade and the 
still older and scarcely less difficult and tedious subject of our 
claims upon France, I had not been able to satisfy myself that he 
had been fortunate in his selections. I assigned my reasons for 
that opinion, at length, not, it is scarcely necessary to say, urging 


_ anything against the public or private worth or general capacity 
of either, but imsisting that the public service in those respects 
would be, in all probability, more successful if those Missions had 


been entrusted to active young men whose reputation as Statesmen, 
unlike those of Livingston and Tazewell, were yet to be established, 


_ who would seize upon those questions which had so often bafiled 


the capacities of old diplomatists with the spirit and vigour of 


youth and who would be sufficiently ambitious to encounter and 


| resist the rebuffs to which, on such oft debated points, they must 


i Littleton W. Tazewell. 2Edward Livingston. 


oe 


GR Fase ne 
252 “AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


expect to be exposed and to submit to the drudgery thro’ which 
final success could alone be hoped for. 

He listened to me with marked attention and, when I had finished, 
said, with much feeling, that his own subsequent reflection had caused 
misgivings in respect to the adaptation of the gentlemen he had 
selected for the particular concerns with which they were to be 
charged and that the views I had expressed convinced him entirely 
that his course, tho’ well meant, had been an unwise one, adding that 
nothing could afford him more satisfaction than to be able to recall 
the offers he had made if he could do so in a way ° perfectly consist- 
ent with what was due to his own honor and to the feelings of the 
gentlemen to whom he had tendered them, which we were agreed 
could not be done. But as his offers had neither been accepted nor re- 
fused, tho’ considerable time had elapsed since they had been made, 
the prominence of the subjects referred to in the public mind and 
the desire that would naturally be felt by the parties particularly in- 
terested and by the friends of the Administration to see prompt and 
effective measures adopted to remedy what the latter had regarded 
as failures on the part of our predecessors, suggested the propriety 
of writing to those gentlemen assigning the reasons for speedy action 
and inviting them to give definite answers upon the point of accept- 
ance and to be ready, if they accepted, to start upon their respective 
missions as early as the first of August then next, which would leave 
them four months for preparation. To this he cordially assented 
and I promised to prepare the letters for his inspection. 

The missions in respect to which changes were resolved upon at 
that interview were those to England, France and Spain. For the 
last he invited me to suggest a name. I proposed that of Mr. Wood- 
bury,’ which he promptly accepted. He had served with him in the 
Senate and as no member of the Cabinet had been taken from 
New England he considered his location fortunate. I wrote to Mr. 
Woodbury on the spot.? . 

In my letter I expressed a confident belief that “in the present 
state of things his talents (of which no one had a higher opinion 
than myself) would enable him to render essential service to th 
Country and acquire great credit to himself and that I was author- 
ized to say that the President embraced with pleasure, this, the earli- 
est opportunity which circumstances had allowed him; to manifest 
the high sense he entertained of his public services and of his (Mr. 
Woodbury’s) claims upon his personal respect and esteem.” 

Two weeks had not elapsed since I had parted from Mr. Wood- 
bury, at New York, at midnight, with evidences, both ocular anc 
oral, of his serious disappointment, and feeling that the President 


° MS. III, p. 50. 1 Levi Woodbury. 2 Apr. 7, 1829, Van Buren Papers. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. ORS 


had made me the happy instrument of a good act in authorizing 
the offer to him of so honorable a mission I looked with much com- 
_ placency for the receipt of his answer, not doubting it would show 
_ that the wounded spirit had been healed, in some degree, at least, 
_ thro’ my agency. 
_ It came, but not in the gratifying form I had anticipated, rather 
_ as a damper upon my feelings. He was very anxious to do what he 
_ could to “furnish the President with any influence in his power 
_ towards the successful accomplishment of the policy of his admin- 
istration, as thus far developed, and to obviate misapprehensions, 
prejudices” &c; but it was doubtful whether he would be able to 
accept the mission, and he wanted information on certain named 
points before he could decide. These related principally to the busi- 
ness to be transacted in Spain—the time to elapse before he would 
have to start on his Mission—when his salary would commence if he 
accepted and how long he would be expected to remain abroad. 
Without changing our opinions in respect to the strong points in 
_ Mr. Woodbury’s character or his capacity to make himself useful in 
the public service, this answer occasioned both to the President and 
_ inyself no little surprise and disappointment. We could not help 
_ seeing that the President’s prompt offer, and the flattering terms in 
_ which it had been conveyed, instead of being received as proof of our 
_ respect and esteem for him had filled Mr. Woodbury with exaggerated 
- notions of our estimate of the importance to the administration that 
he should be conciliated. Yet this was all a mistake. He was one of 
the few prominent New England men who had withstood the sec- 
tional current in favor of Mr. Adams and remained with us thro’ 
_ the election, for which reason, strengthened by the fact that the 
_ Eastern States were not represented in the Cabinet, I was desirous, 
sensible of his undoubted capacity, that he should receive an fee 
3 proof of the favor and confidence of the Executive; but there could 
not possibly have been a greater error than the soc that, in 
24 the matter of appointments, President Jackson was ever aigenesa 
_ by any consideration like that here suggested. The conciliation of 
q individuals formed the smallest, perhaps too small a part of his 
“policy. His strength lay with the masses and he knew it. He first, 


la 


re” a Ti 


eer ie 


Mr. Woodbury’s letter was the frst answer to the President’s offer 
_ of important public employment after the organization of his Cabi- 
_ het and it doubtless served to put him a little upon his mettle. It 


254 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


besides presented a good opportunity for a brief exposé of the course 
which he intended to pursue in similar cases. I have only the rough 
draft of my reply before me which I insert, as it furnishes from its 
confidential character, reliable evidence of the principles upon which 
the President acted in the discharge of his official duties. - 


To Lrvr WoopBurRy. 


Private. 
My DEAR Sir, 

If you accept the President will expect you to leave the Country as soon as a 
due regard to your private affairs will allow, so that you are not detained 
beyond the first of August. Delay in the departure and dispatch in the return 
of our Foreign Ministers was a vice of the late administration which we con- 
demned then and must not practice now. The President will therefore expect 
that the Ministers appointed by him shall proceed upon their missions in a 
reasonable time and regulate the period of their return by the public interest 
and not by their pleasure or personal convenience. If good cause exists for an 
early return leave will of course be given but in the absence of special reasons 
a return in a shorter period than four years will not be anticipated. 

The President regards the Mission to Spain as the second in point of impor- 
tance in the present condition of our foreign relations, and testifies that con- 
viction by the fact of depriving himself of your services in your present highly 
honorable and responsible situation. 

Your salary will, in case of acceptance, commence from the time you leave 
your home including a visit to this city which will be regulated by the period 
of your departure. 

Hoping that your decision will be such as I cannot but think will redound 
to your honor and advance the interests of the Country 

I am, dear Sir, 
Your friend and obd’t serv’t* 


Mr. Woodbury’s answer to this avowed his concurrence in the 
general views it expressed and disclaimed all desire to have prin- 
ciples so clearly conducive to the public interests departed from on 
his account. He said that if the Mission had been for a specific 
object likely to be accomplished in a year or two, he would have 
overcome all objections and accepted the offer, but that his family 
were inflexibly opposed to accompanying him, that a large majority 
of his friends were adverse to his leaving the Country for so long 
a time, if at all, and as the mission was of a general character and 
must probably last four years, or longer, he was constrained with 
great reluctance to decline it. To put him entirely at his ease upon 
the subject, by direction of the President, I informed him that his 
letter had been submitted to the latter who found nothing in the 
reasons assigned otherwise than satisfactory—that he regarded the 
considerations upon which the declension had been placed as proper 
to be taken into view and to control the decision, and that it was a 
satisfaction to the President to know that one consequence of his” 


1 Written in April, 1829, 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 255 


-disappoinment would be to save to the councils of the nation the 
advantages of Mr. Woodbury’s talents and experience. 
In a subsequent letter? based on the preceding one, Mr. Wood- 
bury assured the President of his entire willingness to fill any situa- 
tion under the Government which would not, like the Mission to 
Spain, require so long° an absence from his family, and accom- 
panied that announcement with a gloomy account of the disordered 
condition of our own party and of the extraordinary activity with 
which the opposition had already entered on the canvass for the 
next Presidential election; talked of resigning his seat in the Senate 
and of retiring from public life, &c., &c, upon all of which Gen. 
Jackson, in returning his letters to me, remarked in a note “that 
he inferred that Mr. Woodbury over rated the value of the aid that 
Mn. Adams would be able to bring to Mr. Clay at the next Presi- 
dential election and was more alarmed than the facts would war- 
rant; that we had only to continue the course we have commenced, 
take principle for our guide and public good our end, and the people 
will sustain us.” 
In this brief note and in that relating to Ritchie’s letter are to be 
discovered the secret of the General’s extraordinary popularity. Such 
an abiding trust in the integrity of the people and in their fidelity 
to those who are faithful to them, accompanied by a readiness to 
spend and to be spent in their service, a willingness at all times to 
sacrifice ease and comfort and if necessary to hazard his life for 
their safety could not escape their knowledge or fail to secure their 
love and gratitude. Since his character had become known to them 
by a long series of self sacrificing acts they had not doubted that a 
solicitude for their welfare most ardent and of never failing disin- 
terestedness was deeply seated in his heart and ever present to his 
mind. Nor was it surprising that this faith and these dispositions 
constituted such marked features in his character. They were nat- 
ural results of peculiar circumstances in his condition. No publicman 
was ever so highly elevated of whom it could be said with more 
truth that he was one of the people. They were his blood relations 
—the only blood relations he had in this or, as far as is yet known, in 
any Country. No one stood nearer to him in that great natural tie 

an another. The remarkable success which crowned his efforts in 
their service had inspired him with a firm belief that to labour for 
the good of the masses was a special mission assigned to him by 
his Creator and no man was ever better disposed to work in his 
vocation in season and out of season. It is not surprising that with 
these convictions and dispositions he should have been so potent with 
a sagacious and just people. 


_*May 3,.1829, Van Buren Papers. 2 May 18, 1829, ibid. ° MS), TEE p;. 55. 


256 3 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. in ees 


I have not introduced these particulars by way of blame or still 
less of disparagement but to give an inside view of the actions of - 
public men—a view which generally differs materially from that 
which is seen by the public. The sequel of this work will shew how ~ 
much there was in Mr. Woodbury’s career deserving of the respect 
and approbation of his Countrymen and of the support which both 
Gen. Jackson and myself gave to him to the very close of our public 
lives, notwithstanding striking peculiarities, I might almost say 
obliquities, in his political course. 

Mr. Tazewell, altho’ willing to represent his State in the Na- 
tional Legislature, appeared to me to be as free from the love 
of office as any man with whom I was associated in public life. 
He came to the seat of Government very soon after my arrival and 
I think before I wrote to him on the subject of the Mission to — 
England which had been tendered to him by the President. He 
was he said unwilling to accept it unless he could satisfy himself 
that by doing so he would have it in his power to render his 
Country some signal service. Upon that point at least he seemed 
to carry his heart in his hand, and left no room for misconstruc- 
tion or doubt as to his sincerity. He had taken as Senator an active 
part in the proceedings of. Congress on the subject of the West India 
Trade, but his hopes of a successful negotiation in respect to it 
were not sanguine. In this state of mind his purpose in coming to 
Washington was to ascertain whether it was at all probable that he’ 
would be able to exert an influence in behalf of the repeal or modi- 
fication of the corn laws, and to place the question of his accept- 
ance upon the result of that enquiry. He announced that deter- 
mination to the President and myself but we could not with truth 
give him any encouragement upon the point and told him so with- 
out reserve. Being well acquainted with the British Minister at 
Washington, Sir Charles R. Vaughan, and appreciating the sincerity 
and frankness of his character, he expressed a desire to see and 
consult with him upon it to which we saw no objections. He car- 
ried, I think, a letter from me expressive of his desire and of the 
President’s approbation of the proposed interview, but Sir Charles 
expressed so confidently his conviction of the utter hopelessness 
of the proposed attempt that Mr. Tazewell returned and declined 
the Mission. 

I remember well how much pleasure and relief, amid our cares 
and vexations we experienced from the candid, unselfish and public 
spirited disposition shewn by him in these interviews. At the 
next session of Congress Mr. Tazewell embarked, or, I might per- 
haps with truth say, was drawn by his personal and political as 
sociations into a violent opposition to the Treaty with the Sublime 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 257 


the occasion of the first overt act of Mr. Calhoun’s opposition to 
the Administration of President Jackson. In this I, having con- 
ducted the negotiation, thought him wrong and it was well under- 
stood that his State, although interposing no specific complaint, 
did not approve of his course; but whatever may have been the 
degree of credit or discredit due to his conduct on the latter occasion 
I have never forgotten his rare and admirable bearing on that to 
_ which I have first referred, and I take much pleasure i in eine this 
record of the transaction to which it related. 
__ Satisfied that he had been too hasty in respect to the appoint- 
ments to England and France, General Jackson informed me that, 
; it it should become necessary to make new selections, he stil 
expect me to name the men and that, having confidence in my judg- 
"ment, it!'was more than probable that he rad adopt them. 
‘ Mr. Berrien, who had been appointed Attorney General, was, 
at the moment, in Georgia arranging his private affairs prepara- 
tory to his removal to the seat of Government. Assuming that 
: he would prefer the place of Minister to England the Prete 
authorized me to offer him an exchange of places and, on the as- 
4 sumption that he would certainly consent to it, to offer the At- 
: 
- 
z 
4 


E Porte for the navigation of the Black Sea by American vessels— 
| 


at os 


torney Generalship to Mr. McLane, which was eal without wait- 
ing for Mr. Berrien’s answer. Mr. McLane’s reply addressed te 
me in an unofficial letter, did not come up to my anticipation, but 
_ the President was predisposed to regard it in the most favorable 
: light and I was too partial to him to scan his faults. He con- 
_ fessed that he had not his own free consent to accept the place and 
_ did so reluctantly, regarding it as a sacrifice to the interests of his 
4 large family (which did not leave him at liberty to be fastidious, 
or to consult his own inclinations) and to those of the cause and 
of his friends; adding that “if he could have supposed the Presi- 
dent intended to make any immediate provision for him he could 
have suggested one much more desirable to himself and probably 
_ equally so for him and all others. He thought moreover that he 
(the President) had purchased the change in the office of Attorney 
- General at too great a price.” 
-_ ° ey: as we supposed, for the gratification of our friend 


_ Self and the arrangement probably equally satisfantiars to all others, 
I forthwith presented his name to the President who authorized me 


° MS, ITI, p. 60. 
127483°—voL 2—20——_17 


258 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


-to offer it to him. But we were destined to further disappointment. ; 
From Mr. McLane’s answer, addressed to me, as before unofiicially, 
it appeared that my letter had “embarrassed him;” that when he 
wrote me the day before accepting the office of Attorney General — 
“he was not altogether without his fears that Mr. Berrien might — 
not assent to the change for what was so desirable to ws and on 
which account principally he had decided as he did, i. e. to be with © 
me in the Cabinet, and for that very reason the gharige might not 
be agreeable to ne ” To this it was added, among other things, 
that he hoped that his letter to the Presideah however would shew 
his disposition to consult his own and the honor of the administra- 
tion, and thus “preserve my (his) chance for what I will frankly 
tell you would make me happier than any other honor—the Bench.” 
Meantime, that chance not being impaired, the Mission to England, 
he thought might be turned to even greater advantage, &c; that con- 
sidering moreover the impropriety of exposing you (me) and the 
Pee dnt to many rejected offers as to this Mission, at this period 
of the administration and understanding from your (my) letter 
that your (my) individual] views are in favor of this determination 
I will accept the Mission to England * * * “TJ must trust to 
your friendship and sagacity to keep me in the mind of the President 
and to give such a direction to this affair as may ultimately end 
best for us all.” 

Upon the suggestion of my esteemed and noble hearted friend, 
Capt. Jack Nicolson, of the Navy, I proposed the name of Wash- 
ington Irving, who was then in England, for the place of Secretary 
of Legation to the English Mission to the President and on obtain- 
ing his assent I wrote to his brother Judge Irving * for his opinion 
whether it would probably be acceptable, and receiving a favorable 
answer, the appointment was forthwith made. : 

If Mr. Livingston manifested less indifference to the acquisition 
of his place than Mr. Tazewell it was not because he estimated more 
highly the distinction or craved the emoluments of office. The 
enjoyment of official pomp and circumstance is, guoad the United 
States, an Eastern or New England feeling and is still fostered 
there by the ceremonies and forms incident to public authority. 
My friend Woodbury, tho’ too sagacious to waste much of his 
earthly substance on account of it, yet took great satisfaction in 
its indulgence when attainable without too much pecuniary sacri- 
fice, and Webster’s passion for it was of a still stronger type. 
The latter was never more at home or in gayer spirit than when 
playing the potentate within the circle and to the extent of his 
official possessions. The Southern people were remarkably free from 


’ 


4 


. 


1 John Treat Irving. 


*S ik? fr eae 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 259 


this weakness nor was there ever much of it in the Middle States. 
Regarding Webster and Woodbury, from the North, and Marshall 


_ and Tazewell, from the South, as examples of the extent of it in 


their respective sections they represented in this respect antipodes 
whom it would be difficult to imagine belonging to the same Country 
and reared under the same Government. 

Tazewell, altho’ well educated and, in the best sense of the term, 
a gentleman, would not have been called a literary man, and I am 
sure he derived more social enjoyment from his games at quoits with 
Chief Justice Marshall, Gen. Wickham, Dr. Brockenborough ? and 
others like them at Richmond,° or from dinners of sheeps-head with 
his unceremonious but well bred friends and associates at Norfolk, 
than he could promise himself abroad. To Mr. Livingston nothing 
could be offered more agreeable than the opportunity and facility 
for the cultivation of letters and the society of the highest living 
authorities in art and science at Paris as the fruition of long 
cherished anticipations of that character. Mrs. Livingston was 
French by birth and education and possessed withal superior accom- 
plishments and qualifications for the station to which she seemed des- 
tined. Besides these circumstances the French Mission had long 
been a source of honorable pride in his family, having been the 
highest official distinction enjoyed by his distinguished brother 
Chancellor Livingston, one of the Committee which reported the 
Declaration of Independence; in after times it attracted to his own 
to distinguish it from a worthy connexion of the same name the 
sobriquet of French Edward. ; 

But altho’ he did not lack inducements, worthy to be taken into 
consideration in making up his own opinion, there were others en- 


titled to more influence with the President. He had become satisfied 


| 
y 
( 


that altho’ no appointment could be made that in respect to his indi- 
vidual ‘feelings it would give him more pleasure’to make and perhaps 
none that would add more dignity to the Mission, the selection might 
not prove to have been a fortunate one in view of the particular sub- 
ject to be acted upon and which he was very desirous to adjust. 

I opened a correspondence with Mr. Livington upon the subjects 
of his acceptance of the Mission and the period of his departure 
which resulted in his declension on account of the state of his private 
affairs which required his presence in the United States to a later 
period than any to which his departure could, in his own opinion, 
be properly deferred. Subsequent transactions, to be hereafter re- 
ferred to, would be sufficient to shew, if proof of the fact could be 
thought necessary, that the result in no degree affected the friendly 
‘Telations which had long existed between him, the President and my- 


Me *sohn Wickham, 2Dr. William ? Brockenborough ° MS. III, p. 65. 


wwe f 


260 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


self. His decision to decline was, on the contrary, ae a the 
President in a letter which both in matter and manner were highly 
honorable to: him.* 

By the invitation of the President I suggested a name for the 
vacant mission—that of William C. Rives, of Virginia, to which 
he readily agreed, and Mr. Rives promptly accepted the offer. Mr. 
Liv ingston’ s letter to the President having been received by the 
morning mail from the North I wrote to Mr. Rives by the Southern 
mail on the same day. On the following morning Mr. Livingston 
presented himself at my office and thinking it possible that he came 
to withdraw his declension I informed him at once and in suitable 
terms of what had been done on the previous day. Nothing appear 
during his short stay to confirm or disprove that suggestion, but 
have always been of the opinion that such had been his intention. 

The President selected from several names presented for the Mis- 
sion to Spain, which had been declined by Mr. Woodbury, that of 
Gov. Van Ness,’ of Vermont, and he was commissioned accordingly. 
Mr. Van Ness was a man of rare natural endowments and occupied 
a position among the friends of the National Administration in 
New England which entitled him to its favorable consideration. 
My relations with his family had been for years of an unfriendly 
character but I. acquiesced cheerfully in his selection. The ap- 
pointments of Mr. Preble* to the Netherlands, Mr. Randolph* t& 
Russia, and several Chargés to other Countries having been agreed 
. upon subsequently, I entered upon a very full examination of the 
condition of the public business at the different points to which 
new Ministers were sent, the actual state and past history of unfin 
ished negotiations and the collection of materials for new instruc- 
tions. Upon this work was bestowed between two and three of 
the most laborious months of my whole life. Other matters, o 
course, appertaining’ to the Department of State, occupied portions 
of my attention. Communications between the President and For 
eign Ministers had been postponed till my arrival and I was grievec 
to learn from a friendly and well informed source that impressions 
adverse to the former had been made upon most of the members 
of the Diplomatic Corps. Naturally inclined, from causes that need 
not be stated, to side with the party least imbued with the demo- 
cratic spirit of the Country, the members of that body have been 
always predisposed to approach with distrust any Chief Magis 
trate elevated to power by that influence. The character of tht 
canvass which resulted in the election of Gen. Jackson and the 


1 Livingston to Jackson, May 3, 1829, in the Van Buren Papers. 
2 Cornelius Peter Van Ness. 

8 William Pitt Preble. 

4 John Randolph, of Roanoke. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 261 


a0 ee ened extent to which the feelings of the masses of the 
People had been enlisted in his favor had added much strength 
to this bias. Apprehensions arising from that and kindred sources, 
stimulated by the gossips of the Capital, a class to whose reports 
liplomatists are always ready to listen, had, I found, srown to a 
. of panic. An idea of the nature and prevalence of this feel- 
ing may be formed by recurring to the interview between Mr. and 
M . Livingston and myself at Philadelphia. If persons of their 
intelligence so well acquainted with Gen. Jackson, understanding 
the many admirable and strong traits in his character and withal 
sincerely solicitous for his success, could imbibe such gloomy views 
of the state of affairs at the seat of Government, in respect to points 
which the Foreign Ministers took great interest, what must have 
n those of the Maatttocs themselves, entertaining in advance the 
apprehensions to which I have alluded. 

I made it my business, without delay, to see Baron Huygens, the 
fini er from Holland, with whom as a brother Dutchman I had 
reviously established very friendly relations, and Sir Charles R. 
Vaughan, the British Envoy, with whom I had been for some time 
also upon intimate and cordial terms, and to do what I could to 
remove the unjust impressions of which I have spoken, and I met 
with a degree of success which the elevated character of both had 
given me good reason to anticipate. I next invited the Diplomatic 
orps, by direction of the President, to meet me in a body, at the 
Executive Mansion with a view to their presentation and on the 
evening before the day appointed for that purpose I sent the follow- 
mgnote 

To THE PRESIDENT. 

g Sir 

h conversation last evening with Mr. Huygens he made a suggestion which 
[ think deserves consideration. I mentioned to him, as I had before done to 
sir Charles Vaughan, that as the only object of the introduction tomorrow 
Was to relieve them and yourself from the embarrassments resulting from the 
irregular interviews which had previously taken place, it could not be 
cessary to have anything like formal addresses. To this both assented and 
r. Huygens added that an impression had been made in Europe of an un- 
rable character in respect to your dispositions in respect to our foreign 
ions; that they (the Diplomatic Corps) had already seen sufficient to 
ve whatever apprehensions might have existed upon that point and were 
mgly disposed by their reports to do all in their power to effect the same 
at their respective courts; that the invitation for to morrow was very 
-in itself and had been well received and that if you should choose to 
ubmit a few observations to them of a general character and advancing only 
ae Same sentiments as those contained in your inaugural address, it would, 
€ thought, enable them to do great good at home, 

YT submit to you whether avoiding anything like a set speech, and without 
ning it for any other publication than would be given to it by the Ministers, 
ir reports, and by common fame, you might not say to them, with ad- 


\ 


262 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


vantage, that the sentiments you expressed in your inaugural address in regard 4 
to the foreign relations of the Country you now repeat to them; that your 
opinion now is and always has been that the true interests of this Country 
would always be best consulted by preserving the relations of peace with all the | 
world, and an intercourse founded upon principles of fair reciprocity; that | 
you entered upon the trust committed to you without foreign prejudices or 
predilections and with personal feelings of the most friendly character een 
every nation with whom we have intercourse, and that it should be your en- 
deavour as it was your sincere desire to promote the° interests of your own 
Country, without doing injustice to the rights of others, by the most frank, 
friendly and sincere negotiations. 

I shall have the pleasure of seeing you either this evening or in the morning, 

Yours truly 
SunpAay Mornine 
April 5th, 1829. 


The attendance of the Ministers was full and after they had been 
individually presented to the President he made them a brief ad- 
dress, expressing substantially the ideas which had been suggested, 
which, delivered in the General’s invariably happy and impressive 
manner was received with the highest satisfaction and a copy having 
been furnished to each, at their request, was forthwith forwarded to 
their respective governments. The introduction was followed by 
invitations to dinner and an entertainment, to say the least of it, not 
inferior to those to which they had been accustomed, on similar oc- 
casions, anywhere. The simple yet kindly old-school manners of 
the host with the amicable assurances of his address and the unex- 
ceptionable quality of his banquet made the most favorable impre 
sions upon the guests which they took no pains to conceal, and thus 
the anxieties of these gentlemen were completely relieved and their 
prejudices materially softened by the most approved diplomatic ma 
chinery. 

Notwithstanding these auspicious signs of improvement in one 
branch of the public service, circumstances soon occurred in another 
by which my own continuance in the Cabinet was, for a brief period, 
involved in difficulty and doubt. | 

The President made it a rule of his administration from which he 
very rarely departed, to bring all questions in respect to which he 
had reason to anticipate opposition from his Cabinet, to a speedy 
decision,—a practice, founded in good sense and an accurate knowk 
edge of human nature, which served to prevent the heart-burning 
and excitement which such differences in opinion, when often dis 
cussed and long kept on foot, seldom fail to engender. He had 
doubtless, from a very early period, decided to appoint Samm el 
Swartwout Collector of the Port of New York, and, without am 
thing having passed between us upon the subject, seemed to hay 


° MS. III, p. 79. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 263 


expected opposition from me, certainly, and possibly from the Sec- 
retary of the Treasury. He waited no longer than was made neces- 
sary by his indispensable attention to other important points which 
arose upon the complete organization of his Cabinet before that 
matter was brought forward and first broached to me in the follow- 
ing note: 
April 20th, 1829. 

Dz. SIR 

I haye this morning sent to Mr. Ingham* the papers in relation to the 
New York Customs, requesting him after he examines them to hand them 
to you. Will you also have the goodness to look at them and give me your 
opinion in writing on the relative merits of the several applicants specifying 
at the same time the offices to which you would appoint them, and how 
_ far the principles we have adopted would justify dismissals from office in 
_ that Port? I wish now to act promptly on a subject which has a good deal 
worried me. 

In addition to the papers sent Mr. Ingham this morning I have a few 
more confidential letters, for the most part in favor of Mr. Swartwout. The 
two Senators from New York, also, verbally recommended Mr. Swartwout. 

I am, very respectfully Yrs“ke 


a) ee ee ee ee ee 


ANDREW JACKSON 
Mr. VAN BUREN. 
Although the General referred to the appointments in the Custom 
_ House generally, that of Collector was the bone of contention by 
_ which he had been worried. Upon examining the documents sent 
me I found the President’s files as was usually the case on similar 
occasions, overburthened with recommendations in favor of Swart- 
_ wout’s appointment from persons too many of whom would have 
_ been bad advisers under any circumstances and had no right to speak 
_ for the friends of the administration in the City, and not a few of 
‘ whom had opposed us in the election, with scarcely a communica- 
_ tion from those who were best entitled to be heard from on the sub- 
ject. 

After consulting with the Secretary of the Treasury I wrote to 
_ our friends in New York apprising them of the danger of Swart- 
_ wout’s appointment unless they forthwith presented to the President 
unequivocal evidence of the sense of the city and advising that the 
_ Chamber of Commerce should be applied to for an expression of their 
_ opinion, not doubting that they would, notwithstanding their gen- 
_ eral political opposition to the administration, step forward, in a 
ease of such magnitude and endeavour to prevent the great evil 
Bophich I thought the appointment of Swartwout would be. I wrote 
' to our Senators Dudley and Sanford,? to know whether they had ree- 
| ommended the act and received the fullest assurances from them that 
the President had been deceived upon that point. Having taken 


1Samuel D. Ingram. 2 Charles E. Dudley and Nathan Sanford. 


264 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
these steps to sectire an interference from the proper quarters, I pre- 
pared an opinion, in compliance with the President’s invitation, — 
which filled several sheets, stating unreservedly the objections to the — 
appointment of Swartwout and to the character of the recommenda- ~ 
tions in his case, and suggesting the names of John Ferguson or 
Saul Alley for the office in question. : 
The following is an extract from my written opinion :— 
I have known Mr. Swartwout for many years although not intimately. I 
have always regarded him as a generous, warm-hearted, and high-spirited man, 
influenced by kind feelings to his friends and have consequently never enter- — 
tained any other than friendly feelings towards him personally. Politically — 
he has never been and is not now in a situation to make his opinions the cause 
of prejudice or solicitude with me. It is my clear and decided opinion (and 
a firmer or better grounded conviction I never entertained in my life) that 
the appointment of Mr. Swartwout to the office of Collector of the Port of New 
York would not be in accordance with public sentiment, the interests of the — 
Country or to the credit of the administration. Deeply impressed with the pe- 
culiar importance of this appointment and anxious fully to discharge the duty — 
imposed upon me by your request, and by the relation in which I stand to you, 
I feel it my duty to add that his selection would in my judgment be a measure 
that would in the end be deeply lamented by every sincere and intelligent 
friend of your administration throughout the Union. 


This opinion was dated April 23rd, and delivered to the Presi- © 
dent on the next morning. 

The Secretary of the Treasury informed me that he had prepared 
an opinion, coming to the same result, but as he did not seem dis- © 
posed to compare notes with me I did not press him to do so, and I 
never saw the views he presented of the subject. During the even- 
ing of the day on which our opinions had been delivered I received — 
the following notes: " 


FROM THE PRESIDENT. a 
April 24th, 1829. — 
De Sr, — 
I have looked over your views and expositions as to the appointments in the 
Customs of New York with great attention and care, and, with the best lights” 
afforded to my judgment, have settled in the determination to place Mr. Samuel 
Swartwout in the office of Collector. It will be matter of regret to me if our 
friends in New York shall complain of the selection, but from the strong and 
highly respectable recommendations presented in his favor I cannot suspect 
that any greater dissatisfaction will be produced than would be towards almost 
any other who might be selected; perfect and entire unanimity in appointments 
is not to be expected. all 
Respecting Mr. Swartwout all agree, and many have spoken, that he is a 
warm hearted, zealous and generous man, strictly honest and correct in all 
dealings and conduct; none have impugned his ° integrity or honor. He is re- 
puted to be poor, but as an honest man is “ the.noblest work of God,” I cannot 
recognise this as an objection to any man. Mr. Jefferson’s rule “is he honest— 
is he capable,” I have always admired. This being the case of Mr. Swartwout, 


1In the Van Buren Papers, April 23, 1829. ° MS. Ill, p. 16. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 265 


from his recommendations, and it appearing that he can give the necessary 
security required of him, I have thought proper to appoint him. 
Your friend 


ANDREW JACKSON 
Mr. VAN BUREN. 


Respecting the appointment at Nashville (Attorney) I shall leave that to you ; 
fair reciprocity is always right, and as I have given you, in your State, a Collec- 
tor, I leave you, in mine, to give us an Attorney; asking nothing more than that 
you will give us as qualified a man. I have directed all the recommendations to 
be sent-you for the applicants for this office. 

Yours, &¢ 
ANDREW JACKSON 
April 24th 1829 
To the Src’y or STATE 


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These notes were accompanied by another informing me that 
he had appointed my friend, James A. Hamilton, District At- 
torney for the Southern District of New York. The President was 
well warranted in assuming that I was friendly to Mr. Hamilton 
and took an interest in his welfare. He carried a letter from me to 
Gen. Jackson when he went to New Orleans in his company, as a 
representative of the Tammany Society, to attend a celebration 
of the successful result of the Presidential election, and, after my 
appointment, I had also suggested his name to the President as > 
Acting Secretary of ‘State, during the interval previous to my 
arrival at Washington. But he was mistaken in supposing that I 
_ wished Mr. Hamilton to have or would have recommended him for 
_ the appointment conferred upon him. I could not have done so 
with justice to my political friends in New York and the appointee 
was himself too well satisfied of this to broach the subject to me, if 
_ he was advised of what was intended, of which I know nothing. 
He was sitting by me when the President's notes were received and 
_ they were instantly communicated to him. He said that he had not 

_ anticipated his own appointment, or words to that effect, to which 
: I replied that he must be sensible that the difficulties of my position 


FPO AS RE EE Te TT Te NK ee 


growing out of the appointment of Swartwout, with reference to 

the feelings of my New York friends, would be materially in- 
_ creased by what had been done; he admitted that such might be 
_ the case but added nothing eaten and I did not think that I had 
_ aright to say more. If I had received the-slightest intimation that 
such a step was in contemplation my dissent would have been 
‘promptly expressed, altho’ not for reasons founded on a want 
of integrity or capacity on his part. The General had doubtless 
| been induced to believe either from the facts to which I have alluded, 
r thro’ representations of Hamilton’s friends, that his appoint- — 
ment would go far to reconcile me to that of Swartwout. I did not 


to ask him to decline, but so far as appearances could speak, he was 
not left in doubt in respect to my mortification at the whole trans- 
action. 

I had been from the beginning aware of the strong preference 
which Swartwout’s apparently chivalrous character and engaging 
manners had excited in the breast of the President, but I had not 
anticipated nor was I at all prepared to witness its influence in, 
so grave a form. The result came upon me at a moment when 
my health was feeble and my spirits depressed, and, tho’ I had 
resisted all the reasonings that had been given to me, since my 
appointment, by men whose friendship I did not in the least doubt, 
my mind was not at ease in regard to my position. I took my hat 
and walked the streets of Washington until a late hour of the night — 
deliberating whether I ought not to adopt the advice I had received 
and to resign a post surrounded by such embarrassments, but I re- 
turned to my lodgings and retired to my bed with my views in 
respect to the path of duty painfully unsettled. I need scarcely 
say that it was not by the possible consequences of a single appoint-— 
ment, important as that undoubtedly was, that I was induced to 
raise the question which I canvassed sul so much earnestness. — 
The evils I apprehended from a step of that character might, after 
all, not occur, or might be limited in extent, but the feeling which 
so deeply disturbed me arose from an apprehension, excited by 
what had just occurred that my dissatisfied friends might prove 
to have been right in their belief that persons who could never 
possess my confidence had acquired an influence over the President’s 
mind which would force me to an ultimate resignation if they 
retained it. 

But the first impressions of the morning, always to me the clear- 
est and the best, presented the subject in a light which, tho’ not ™ 
divesting it of a few painful features, indicated the right way with 
reasonable distinctness. I was satisfied that in deciding upon the 
effect which this act of the President ought to have upon my own 
course I could not properly go beyond the motives by which I 
believed him to have been actuated. If I could think for a moment 
that he had made the appointment with impressions of Swartwout’s 
-character similar to my own my instant withdrawal was a matter 
of duty, but if on the other hand I felt authorized to assume tha 
he had acted in good faith, under a sincere conviction that those 
impressions on my part were unfounded, and that whilst he grati- 
fied his personal predilections, he at the same time consulted well 
the public interest, I could not make his act the ground of resig- 
nation without pretending to rights which I did not possess. Hi 
was alone responsible for it and had extended to me all the con- 
sideration due to my position by asking and respectfully considering 


266 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


/ 


+ AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 267 


my advice. To have claimed more might well have been thought 
an encroachment on his Constitutional rights. A perseverance on 
his part in acts of the same nature to an extent sufficient to shew, 
_ beyond reasonable doubt, a radical and incurable defect in his char- 
: acter, would change the state of the question, but as matters stood 
my first duty was to try to prevent a state of things so greatly to be 
_ regretted and there was certainly much in the way the act in question 
_ had been performed to encourage me in making such an effort. 
: There were moreover certain other considerations of much weight 
in favor of the course I decided to pursue. I could not help feeling 
_ that my position was a peculiar one and that there were responsibili- 
ties attached to it of a character widelv different from those which 
ordinarily attach to occupants of public stations, to explain which 
T must take the risk of exposing myself to the charge of excessive 
vanity—about the only reproach which my political enemies had 
_ never laid at my door. No man ever attained to eminence in our 
Country who was more exclusively the artificer of his own fortunes 
_ than was General Jackson, or whose unsurpassed personal popularity 
_ was founded to a greater extent upon the confidence of the People 
-in the integrity of his motives and in the value of his disinterésted 
services, unaided by extraneous or adventitious circumstances. In 
respect to practical good sense, sound and ripe judgment, knowledge 
_ of human nature, indomitable and incorruptible spirit and general 
capacity for business a large majority of the People of the United 
States relied upon him with the greatest confidence and with entire 
justice. But of his experience in executive duties like those which 
_ appertain to the office of President and of his habitual self control, 
_ a matter of vital importance in that high station, many of his warm- 
_ est supporters were not without lively apprehensions—a portion anx- 
_iously distrustful. Hence arose a general solicitude on the part of 
his friends that he should have nearest to him in his Cabinet one to 
' whose qualifications and discretion, in those respects, they might 
_ trust. The gratification of this desire was looked for, as the result 
fa proved, with unusual unanimity, in my appointment as Secretary of 
: State, whether rightly or not is a question® which, in this view of 
the subject, it is not necessary to consider. Accordingly the result 
i of the election was no sooner known than there arose, spontaneously 
throughout the Country, without respect to sections or cliques, a call 
upon the new President from those who had raised him to power 
for that appointment. To that expression there was no avowed 
+ ~ exception. I have heretofore quoted Gen. Jackson’s published dec- 
_ taration that he considered my name to have been placed before him 
5 for the place to which he called me by the united voice of the politi- 


ay 


= 


° MS. Ili, p. 80. 


268 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. — baton Sites 


cal party by which he had himself been elected—a declaration often 


repeated by him in conversation and in letters as well while the ~ ; 


formation of the Cabinet was in progress as subsequently. Thus 
holding my post my reflections satisfied me that I was not at liberty 
to withdraw from it without farther efforts to realize the wishes of 
those who had given me this gratifying proof of their confidence. 
Under these impressions I decided to remain and only asked the 
consent of the President that I should inform my friends in New 
York that the appointment of Swartwout had been made against 
my earnest remonstrance and that of Hamilton without my knowl- 
edge or desire. This he promptly gave in a letter which stated the 
facts exactly and which he advised me to send to my friend Mr. 
Cambreleng with permission to shew it to whom he pleased. Swart- 
‘wout succeded in making himself a popular Collector and the Presi- 
dent made occasional good-natured allusions to the apprehensions L 
had exhibited on the occasion of his appointment, speaking of the 
matter as the greatest of the few mistakes he had known me to make. 
After I had resigned the office of Secretary of State and whilst we 
waited for the carriage in which he was about to accompany me a ~ 
part of the way to Baltimore he placed in my hand my protest — 
against Swartwout’s appointment saying that it was a document 
which would not read well hereafter when it is considered how great 
was the error on which it was founded and begging me to take it 
and destroy it, or to permit him to do so. Perceiving the kind feel- 
ing in which the proceeding originated, I replied that I could not 
consent to its destruction, that I was free to confess that appear- 
ances favored his opinion but that the affair was not ended nor my — 
apprehensions removed; that, however, if he would permit me, I~ 
would endorse upon it my sense of the kind motives which induced , 
him to return it and that I accepted it because I could not deny 
the gratification which I knew he took in doing what he considered 
4 favor to his friends. I wrote the endorsement in the carriage, read — 
it to him and he laughed at my obstinacy.” 
The sad catastrophe which followed is well known. The subject 3 
yas never afterwards referred to between us. Even during my visit 


aThat my strong apprehensions were not confined to myself abundantly appears from — 
Mr. Cambreleng’s reply to my letter notifying him of Swartwout’s appointment, from — 

which I extract the concluding paragraph :— ‘ 
e New York 28 April 1829 


My Dwar SIR, 
* * * * * * " * 


I congratulate you that the appointments for New York are at an end—and now mark 
me—if our Collector is not a defaulter in four years, I'll swallow the Treasury if it was _ 
all coined in coppers. 

Most sincerely Yours 
Cc. C. CAMBRELENG.* 


Honle M: VAN BUREN 


1Jn the Van Buren Papers. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 269 


to the Hermitage in 1842 when most of the transactions of that and 
still earlier periods interesting to himself were brought into re- 
view in the course of our familiar and to me deeply interesting con- 
versations this matter was studiously avoided. He did not refer to 
it and I was too sensible of the extent of his disappointment and 
mortification to do so myself. 

At the hazard of being thought to descend to matters too unim- 
portant I recur to the day after my arrival at Washington to men- 
tion an incident which happened at that time. I do so because it 
goes to show how little either the abuse that had been heaped on 
both himself and Mrs. Jackson, to whom he was devotedly attached, 
or the rupture of personal and political friendships caused by the 
selection of his Cabinet, or the peculiar views of those by whom he 
was surrounded and by whom he was supposed to be unduly influ- 
enced, or all of them combined had weakened those just and hon- 
ourable sentiments with which his nature was thoroughly imbued 
and which never failed to show themselves when occasion offered. 
His defeated competitor removed from the White House to Com- 
modore Porter’s place, on Meridian Hill, where he resided for some 
time. Up to the time of my arrival no one connected with the new 
administration, which had then been organized some six weeks, had 
called upon Mr, Adams. On examining into the cause of this omis- 
sion I found that it was considered due to the feelings of the Presi- 
dent which had been deeply wounded by an attack on Mrs. J ackson 
that had appeared in the Washington J ournal, a newspaper exten- 
sively regarded as under the influence of Mr. Adams, Not believing 
that Gen. Jackson desired such a course to be pursued, and satisfied 
as to what my own should be, I apprised him of my intention to 
pay my respects to the ex-President, to which he instantly replied 
that he was glad to hear it. He said that the treatment which he 
had too much reason to think he had received from Mr. Adams was 
of such a character that he did not feel himself at liberty to over- 
look it or he would long before have called upon him himself, 
_ but this was his personal matter and his friends would best consult 
__ his own wishes when they left its treatment to him alone. It was 
' his desire, he said, that those associated with him in the Govern- 
_ ment should treat Mr. Adams with the respect that was due to him 
_ and he was happy to find that I was about to set them so good an 
_ example. The beneficial effects shed upon the new relations which 
__ had been established between the President and myself by this mag- 
__ianimous course on his part may well be imagined. 

__ I made my call and was very cordially received by Mr. Adams, 
i. and I subsequently sent to him, from time to time, the despatches 
_ Yelating to unfinished negotiations in the results of which he ex- 
_ Pressed particular interest, with such of the foreign newspapers as 


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270 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. , 


he desired to read. When I left him he said he would give me a 
hint that I might find useful which was that no secrets could be kept 
in the State Department, but that on the contrary the foreign 
Ministers were always certain in one way or another to get informa- 
tion of any negotiation going on there in which their Governments 
felt an interest. 

The first negotiation we instituted was one with the Sublime Porte 
for the establishment of commercial relations between Turkey and 
the United States, and the admission of American vessels to the 
navigation of the Black Sea. Apprehensive that other powers might 
interfere to our prejudice I availed myself of Mr. Adams’ hint and 
kept all the papers at-my private rooms while the matter was in 
progress. The negotiation was entirely successful and I embraced 
an early opportunity to advise Mr. Adams of the proceeding and the 
result, both of which he highly commended. 

Encouraged by the General’s remarks, I made a serious effort to 
re-establish friendly relations between him and Mr. Adams, and for 
a season with good prospect of success. Believing that the former — 
would be entirely safe in assuming that Mr. Adams had no previous : 
knowledge of the attack upon Mrs. Jackson, which had so much of- 
fended him, I urged that it was his business as the victor to make : 
friendly advances and that moreover such was the course which the — 
public would expect from his character. The injury of which he . 
complained was one in regard to which he proved to be more impla- 
cable than was the case as to any to which he had been subjected. I~ 
finally prevailed upon him notwithstanding to promise me that he 
would on some fitting occasion speak to Mr. Adams and offer him his 
hand. The funeral of Doddridge, a member of Congress from Vir- 
ginia, which I thought Mr. Adams by his partiality for the late mem- 
ber, would attend struck me as likely to present an appropriate op- 
portunity. For some reason I was not able to be present myself but 
I made it my business to remind the General, before he started, of his 
engagement which he promised to fulfil. Calling afterwards to as- 
certain the result he told me, with obvious sincerity but with a smile 
which I confessed to be irrepressible when I heard his report, that he — 
had approached Mr. Adams with a bona fide intention to offer him 
his hand, but that the “old gentleman,” as he called him, “ observing 
the movement, had assumed so ° pugnacious a look that he was afraid 
he would strike him if he came nearer!” JI had no difficulty in ex- 
plaining Mr. Adams’ looks in a way to keep my proposition open 
for further consideration. Sometime afterwards the General, Major 
Donelson? and myself were sitting at the dinner table, after the ladies 
had retired, when one of us, perceiving a copy of a Congressional 


° MS. III, p. 85. 1 Andrew Jackson Donelson. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 271 


- document on the mentelpiece, took it up and found it to be a report 
_ tnade by Adams as Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture. As 
_ the weather was unpropitious for walking and they were neither of 
_ them wine-bibbers, I proposed that the Major should read the report 
which he accordingly entered upon. To my amazement the brochure 
proved to be, under that cover, a labored, unjust and violent attack 
upon the President and his administration, F or a while he listened 
with composure, occasionally interposing an expression of pity that 
the author should have nourished such violent antipathies at his 
time of life, but the charges became hotter and hotter and more and 
' More unjust, his patience became exhausted and he said, with con- 
siderable vehemence, “Stop! Major, I will hear no more of i 
_ and then, after 2 moment’s pause, he turned to me, with a perfectly 
composed countenance, and added, “I hope, my dear Sir, that you 
are satisfied that it will be best to give up the project you have so 
much at heart.” 

Isincerely regretted that I was compelled to abandon the idea of 
reconciliation between these gentlemen as is many personal qualities, 
they were formed to like each other and were warm friends during 
_ the General’s Seminole difficulties—perhaps the most trying period of 
his public life. Whatever differences of opinion may have existed in 
regard to the propriety of his [Adams] appearance in the House of 
Representatives or to the course he pursued there, no liberal mind 
can fail to admire the spirit and indomitable firmness with which 

he maintained opinions which he, doubtless, conscientiously believed 
_ to be right altho’ they were not always in harmony with those of 

the House. On more than one of these occasions he presented a 
_ full length portrait of “the old man eloquent” not often exhibited 
to that body. One of those stirring and unpremeditated outbursts 

will be long remembered. The occasion was a proposition to give 
Bite President power to enforce our claims for indemnity against 
France. Mr. Webster had wound up a violent attack in the Senate 
upon the proposition by saying that he would not consent to give 
© power asked for by President Jackson even if our quasi-enemy 
were thundering ‘at our doors! Mr. Adams, with kindled eyes and 
tremulous frame, closed an eloquent and forcible defense of the 

proposition with a hearty denunciation of the unpatriotic avowal 
which had been made in the other house and with the declaration, 
at the top of his piercing voice, that the man who was capable of utter- 
mg such a sentiment had but one step more to take, and that was 
oO meet the enemy at the door and to join him! The excited feeling of 
the House broke forth, for the first time in either Hall of our na- 
onal Legislature, in a general clapping of hands. 
Mr. Adams’ general personal demeanour was not prepossessing. 
He was on the contrary quite awkward, but he possessed one ac- 


272 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.  =—C~™S 


complishment for which those who had only seen his grave and 
unamiable looking countenance of the morning and in public could — 
scarcely have given him credit,—he was, in a small and agreeable — 
party, one of the most entertaining table companions of his day. — 
Whilst the Presidential question was pending in the House of Rep- 
resentatives, I was, one day, somewhat surprised to receive an invi- 
tation from George Sullivan, of Boston, then temporarily residing ~ 
at’ Washington, to meet Mr. Adams and a small party at dinner. 
On mentioning the circumstances to my friend, Forsyth," he told 
me that Sullivan was electioneering for Mr. Adams, in a quiet way, 
by thus bringing him under the observation of gentlemen who had 
imbibed personal prejudices against him. He then informed me 
of Mr. Adams’s proficiency in that accomplishment to which I have | 
just referred and of which I was not before aware. I was not able. 
to avail myself of Mr. Sullivan’s invitation, but, in after days, I 
remembered the circumstance, and, as frequently as I felt myself 
at liberty to do so, especially during my occupation of the White — 
House, I invited Mr. Adams to small round-table dinners and al- 
ways derived unqualified delight from his society and valuable in- 
formation from his conversation. a 
But it is time to return from this long digression. Dismissing” 
from my mind, as far as possible, the feelings of mortification and 
regret which had been caused by the great mistake the President 
had unwittingly committed in the appointment of Swartwout, T 
devoted myself to the preparation of instructions for the Ministers 
to be sent to England, France, Spain and the Netherlands, besides 
others of minor grades. a 
The negotiation with England, in respect to the trade between 
the United States and her West India and North American Colo- 
nies, by the previous administration had not only been brought to 
an adverse close but had reached that result thro’ much irritation 
on both sides. That with France to obtain indemnity for spolia- 
tions upon our commerce was in a condition apparently as hopeless 
after having been discussed ad nauseam under successive adminis 
trations. With such difficult and grave matters in the front groun d, 
a thorough review not only of the original transactions out of which 
existing questions had arisen but of the several steps which had 
been taken by the parties-towards their adjustment became ind is- 
pensable. By such a course only could I hope to raise points sutli- 
ciently new and fresh, either in fact or in the manner of presenting 
them, to revive interest that had become dormant or to induce 
them to re-open questions which our adversaries affected to regare 
as settled. . a 


1John Forsyth of Georgia. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 273 


__.My labours upon this branch of my official duties were thus 
_ spoken of in a contemporary publication :— 


_ Our unadjusted foreign relations have been placed in a fair train of settle- 
- Ment. The labor and devotion to the publie service by which this has been 
_ accomplished are not much known beyond the circle of the State Department. 
_ The Secretary has been employed for weeks in succession, from morning till 
sundown, in preparing dispatches and fitting out mnissions, involving the most 
_ important interests of the Country. Frequently time has been snatched from 
_ the night to accomplish these works in time for the departure of the foreign 
_ Ministers. Since last March, four Ministers have been furnished with instruc- 
_ tions involving much labor and unweary research in the preparation. Two of 
_ these missions were particularly important; Mr. McLane, sent to England, and 

Mr. Rives commissioned to France. In addition to these foreign missions to 

_ England, France, Spain, and Colombia, we learn that Mr. Preble, Minister to 
_ the Netherlands, has just arrived at Washington preparatory to his departure 
for that Country. This Mission involves interests of great importance to the 
_ state of Maine. The settlement of the North-east Boundary question, which 
has been placed before the King of the Netherlands for his arbitration is now 
_ ima fair way of reaching a termination. In a short time a functionary will be 
_ Sent out to Peru; and others perhaps to the other South American governments. 
_ Before the commencement of the next session of Congress, the Secretary of 
State will have accomplished an immense quantity of public business, &¢, &e, &e. 


The results of these labours were without reserve communicated 
to Congress and thus subjected to the scrutiny and animadversions 
of able and violent, not to say reckless opponents, anxious almost 
_ without precedent, for the overthrow of the administration and 
scarcely less so to interpose obstacles in my path. 

_ Iam not aware that the construction or matter of those voluminous 
instructions have ever been unfavorably criticised with the single 
_ exception of that portion of one of them which was selected as a 


_ pretence for the rejection of my nomination as Minister to Eng- 
meee F *2 


1 Niles Register, Vol. 37, p. 172. 
? Three and a half pages of the MSS. have been cut out at this point. 


127483°—voL 2—20——_18 


CHAPTER XXII. 
The Ministers to England and France were despatched as early — 
as July and in the same public vessel. They arrived at the Courts - 
to which they were respectively accredited early in September and 
entered upon the performance of their duties promptly and with 
a degree of energy, industry and perseverance which was expected ~ 
from capable young men, covetous of fame and who felt that their 
success in undertakings of such magnitude, which had long bafiled 
the efforts of numerous predecessors, could not fail to advance their 
progress towards the great goal—the Presidency—towards which ~ 


their aspirations were as keen and perhaps as confidently directed — 
as those of their most ambitious cotemporaries. They each brought 


to the accomplishment of the tasks assigned to them talents of a high — 
order, with habits of industry not easily broken down and spirits 
not liable to be discouraged by slight obstacles. Speedy and com- 
plete success followed on the part of each in respect to the leading” 
matters which had been committed to his care. Mr. McLane suc-_ 
ceeded in bringing to a satisfactory conclusion, within ten months 
from his presentation to the King, the negotiation in relation to 
the trade between the United States and the English West India 
and North American Colonies, a subject which had for many years” 
afforded matter of contention between the two governments and 
had involved six separate negotiations. By that arrangement our 
trade was placed on a footing more favorable than any on which 
it had ever stood and our commerce and navigation in the Colonial 
ports of Great Britain -became entitled to every privilege allowed 
to other nations. To the propriety of the settlement there was no 
opposition on the part of the Senate, or in Congress or from any 
other quarter. Mr. Rives’ efforts were equally successful altho’ the 
period of the conclusion of his negotiation was somewhat longer 
deferred in consequence of a change in the Government of France 
and other causes. 
It would be doing injustice to these gentlemen not to assign a 
large share of credit for the success of these negotiations to their 
personal exertions, but it would be doing at least equal injustice in 
another quarter not to notice the extent to which we were indebted 
for those results to the character of the new President, to the just 
and liberal principles which he had, unexpectedly to the Sovereign 
of Europe, displayed in the developments of his foreign policy 
and not a little, perhaps, to a prudent foresight of the consequences 
274 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 275 


of persevering injustice in their dealings with a man of his tem- 
perament. The latter idea may be considered strengthened by the 
fact that indemnity was almost immediately obtained from the 
King of Denmark for claims of some twenty years standing and 
tong continued intercession on our part without the slightest change 
of circumstances and by other instances of early success in our for- 
eign affairs. 
These prosperous negotiations so soon after its inauguration, 
_ doubtless added greatly to the strength and credit of the new ad- 
Bsnictration, but its highest and most enduring honors were won 
by the wisdom and successful prosecution of its domestic policy. 
_ The leading points in that policy were: 
_ First, the removal of the Indians from the vicinity of the white 
_ population and their settlement beyond the Mississippi; 
_ Second, to put a stop to the abuses of the powers of the Fed- 
eral Government in regard to internal improvements and to re- 
strict its action upon the ° subject to measures both useful and con- 
_ stitutional; 

Third, to oppose as well the re-incorporation of the existing 
_ National Bank, as the establishment of any other equally unauthor- 
_ ized by the Federal Constitution, and to substitute, in lieu of the aid 
which had been derived from such institution in the management of 
the fiscal affairs of the Government, an agency which whilst consist- 
ent with its authority would promise greater safety and greater 
| “success in that branch of the public service; and 
_ Fourth, to arrest as far as possible the abuses that had crept into 
the legislation of Congress upon the subject of protecting duties and 
to restore it to the footing upon which it was placed at the commence- 
Ment of the Government by imposing no duties beyond what was 
|" necessary for revenue and by assessing those in a way best adapted to 
encourage our own labor. — 
_ These, tho’ not the only, were the most prominent of the domestic 
objects to which President Jackson, from the first moments of his 
elevation to power, directed his attention and for the accomplishment 
of which he sedulously employed the powers with which the People 
had clothed him. He entered forthwith upon the execution of this 
programme, kept it constantly in view, and labored to the end for 
| its completion with the energy and perseverance that formed so large 
| a part of his nature. Few men had less reason than himself to com- 
plain that his official acts were not fairly appreciated by the great 
| body of the People for whose benefit they were performed. Seldom 
)if ever had he to contend, as is so often the case with public men, 
with that lurking suspicion, common and perhaps natural to the 


PO Sate 


BeMU SALT ps 95: 


276 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


efforts for the public good have their origin in motives of personal 
ambition or self interest. In the great transactions of his life 
masses doubted not that his only end and aim was their welfare 
happiness. Even those who dissented from the wisdom of his m 
ures were, with limited exceptions, ever ready to admit that he was 
honest and meant well. 
The almost invariable consequence was a full share of public 
applause for the advantages he had the good fortune to secure to the 
Country in the course of his official career. Yet I have always 
thought and still think that the credit which has been awarded to 
him for the effective aid he rendered to his Country -by his poliey 
in respect to Indian Affairs and by the success with which it y 
executed has fallen far short of his deserts, 
Certainly no other subject was of greater importance than this 
whether we regard the extent to which were involved in its treat 
ment either the interests of humanity, our national character and th 
character of our political institutions, or the peace and prosperity | 0 
the Country. 
It is not requisite here to enter on the question how far our first 
encroachments upon the red men may be allowed to shelter t 
selves under the plea of a struggle between Civilization and 
barism and to find excuse or palliation in the savage cruelties whi 
characterized the resistance made by the latter to the advance 
the former. By the events of the War of 1812 they had been 
duced from powerful tribes or nations to absolute and othe 
hopeless dependence upon the clemency and justice of the U: 
States. At the close of Mr. Monroe’s administration they num 
bered some three hundred thousand souls, less than half of whor 
occupied reservations and other lands within our national boun: 
ries, lying within nineteen different States and Territories. A 
the most untiring efforts had been made to that end yet all pas 
perience had demonstrated not only that any exertions of the Got 
ernment to fit them for incorporation with the whites as citize 
thro’ instruction and civilization would prove abortive, but that 
course which had been pursued, that of buying their lands in d 
and thus bringing them in closer contact with the white man, ter 
to hasten their demoralization and extinction. Under these adver 
circumstances the thinking and truly philanthropic minds of 
Country were directed to and their hopes for the future cent 
upon the plan for their removal and permanent establishment t 
the most generous terms, on the public domain west of the Mi 
sippi, and beyond the bounds of the States and Territories, for as 
ing them in forming a suitable Government, and for securing | 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. ih 


hem ample protection against both domestic feuds and encroach- 
nts from without. 

to the execution of this policy there were obstacles of the gravest 
d; not the least of these being that several of the tribes claimed 
exercised the absolute right of self-government within the 
bounds of the States in which they resided. They founded this 
claim upon the fact that the U. S. Government at early periods in 
Ps existence had treated with them as with foreign powers and 
pon the character of the Treaties it had made with them. This 
laim was actually asserted and enforced only in the States of 
eorgia, Alabama and Mississippi, but if well founded it was of 
qual efficacy in all.the States in which any of the tribes were 
ituated. ‘These States had all been admitted into the Union with 
efined boundaries, including the Indians, and the sovereign author- 
reserved to the States by the Federal Constitution over all within 
heir respective borders had been recognised and guaranteed by 
ie Federal Government; and, to increase the complications of the 
ibject, the latter had also, in some instances, bound itself for valu- 
e considerations to extinguish the Indian titles within the state 
soon as that could be done on reasonable terms. It is not neces- 
y to enter upon an examination of the validity of the claim re- 
red to on behalf of the Indians, as neither the Federal Govern- 
ent, nor any Department of it entrusted with its powers ever con- 
plated a removal of the tribes against their will, or the employ- 
ent of force against them in any form, other than to subject them 
the laws of the several States to the same extent to which other 
ens were subjected to them. To do the latter it had solemnly 
ound itself and it was always quite apparent that no serious at- 
mpt could be made by it to sustain the Indians in their claims to 
right of self government by the exertion of military power 
hout producing a forcible collision between the General and 
tate authorities which might lead to the destruction of the con- 
leracy and more surely to the extirpation of the Indians. 

r. Monroe, in his last annual Message, referred to the desirable- 
of their removal and pointed out, for their location, the terrj- 
y they now occupy, which was then and has ever since been re- 
ded as particularly well adapted to that purpose, and a little 
jore than a month before the termination of his presidency he sent 
Congress a special Message advancing many sound and philan- 
thropic arguments in favor of this policy, accompanied by a full 
Teport, from the Secretary of War, of the facts necessary to safe 
| judicious action by the Legislature. No farther steps were 
ken towards the execution of the proposed plan and circumstances 
appily soon occurred which threw increased difficulties in its 
The Georgia Indians were divided upon the general question 


278 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


and a large and influential portion of them decided to remain where 
they were, never to sell any more of their lands to the Government, 
and to live, for the future, under laws of their own enactment. The 
representatives of that State, at the close of the same session at 
which Mr. Monroe’s extra-message was sent in, charged, on the 
fioor of Congress, that this state of things had been brought about 
by the intrigues of the officers of the General Government and 
openly questioned the good faith of the administration in the mat- 
ter. These suspicions were doubtless increased and the excitement 
of the parties in respect to them unduly inflamed by the hostile — 
feelings which had arisen between the Secretary of War (Mr. 
Calhoun) and his numerous friends in South Carolina, on the one 
part, and many of the prominent and influential public men of 
Georgia, on the other; feelings which retained their bitterness for 
many years and extended their disturbing effects to other portions 
of the Confederacy. 

‘Such was the untoward condition of this great question when 
Congress adjourned and the Chief Magistracy of the Country de- 
volved on Mr. Adams. Of his desire to do what he thought best 
as well for the Indians as for the United States, and, making due 
allowances for his habitual distrust of the doctrine of State rights, 
for the States also, there can be no doubt; but there is every reason © 
to believe that the policy of the plan of removal to the west of the — 
Mississippi, of which I have spoken, was, at that time at least, un- 7 
favorably regarded by him. In the first three of his four annual 
messages the subject was not even referred to. The Secretary of 
War, Gov. Barbour, wrote ° a letter to the Chairman of the Com-_ 
mittee on Indian Affairs,1 in answer to its application for aid and 
advice upon the general subject, in which he discoursed- at lengt 
and eloquently upon the depressed condition to which the Indian 
Tribes had been reduced and the strength of their claims on our 
justice and generosity, and sketched a plan for their removal pur- 
suant to the suggestions made in Mr. Monroe’s message. But no 
one could read his letter without seeing that its entire drift was, 
not to promote such removal, but to throw obstacles in the way of 
anything like an effectual execution of that policy. It nowhere 
appears that that letter was nut sanctioned by Mr. Adams and his | 
Cabinet, and, during the second year of that administration, the 
Country was seriously threatened, as should have been foréseen. 
with a hostile collision between the Federal and State authorities 
upon the subject. 

This mode of dealing with the matter, this ominous silence m 
respect to it on the part of the new President, who had himsel: 


° MS. III, p. 100. : 
1Feb. 3, 1826. Amer. State Papers, Indian Affairs, v. 2, No, 231, p. 646. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 279 


occupied a position next to Mr. Monroe in the preceding adminis- 


tration, the severe denunciation by the Secretary of War of the 


_ only way’in which the Indians could, in all human probability, 


be induced to remove, when added to the encouragements to remain 
which Mr. Forsyth, who was too wise and too honest to deal in 
false surmises on so grave a subject, openly announced on the floor 
of Congress that they had received from the under officers of the 
late administration, induced, as it was natural to expect from their 
influence, large portions of the Indians, sufficiently numerous and 
powerful to defeat that policy, to decline all further overtures upon 
the subject. 

The result was a confederacy, openly formed between the power- 
ful tribes of Creeks and Cherokees, scattered over the states of 
Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, to prevent the sale of any more 
lands by the members or officers of their respective tribes, and to 
establish themselves permanently within those States. 

Other circumstances exasperated the feelings of the parties more 
immediately concerned to a height which threatened the peace of 
the Country. During the last year of Mr. Monroe’s administration 
a treaty was made with the Creeks in Georgia, by which their title 
to all the lands they occupied within that State was extinguished. 
A portion of them believed to have been encouraged by the disposi- 
tions manifested toward them on the part of men in power, made 
yarious objections to that treaty and resisted its execution. To 
allay these dispositions a new treaty was made, during the first 
year of the government of Mr. Adams, by which the former treaty 


was declared to be annulled and some two or three hundred acres 
_ of the land released by it were left out of the new treaty. Georgia 


was of course greatly dissatisfied with this proceeding, not so much 
on account of the value of the land attempted to be given back to 
the Indians as because it defeated the policy of their removal from 


_ the State for which she was most solicitous. She insisted that she 


possessed a right to the soil and jurisdiction over the lands in the 


- occupancy of the Indians, subject only to the power of Congress 
_ “to regulate commerce with the Indian tribes that she had a right 
to legislate for them in all cases not within that exception; that all 
' the right to them ever held by the Indians was legally extinguished 


by the first treaty; that that extinguishment enured to her benefit 


~ and that the federal Government could not, without her consent, an- 
nul that treaty after it had been fully ratified. The’ dissenting 
- Indians contested all these points and claimed that Georgia had no 
_ jurisdiction over them and that they could not be affected by any 
acts of her legislation. 


280 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, = 


The legislature of Georgia passed a law in the form prescribed 
by her Constitution, directing a survey of all the lands to which — 
the Indian title was extinguished by the first treaty. Learning that 
the surveyors under the direction of the Governor of the State had 
entered upon the execution of the duties assigned to them by the 
law referred to, the Little Prince and other dissenting Chiefs of 
the Creek Nation sent to the surveyor’s camp a manifesto signed 
by them, ordered the surveyors “not to stretch a chain over their 
lands” and, upon the attempt of those functionaries to proceed, 
caused them to be arrested, and communicated the facts to the 
President with a demand for the protection of the Federal Govern- 
ment against further encroachment of the part of the state of 
Georgia. 

In the year 1802 Congress passed an act to regulate trade and 
intercourse with the Indian tribes and to preserve peace on the 
frontiers. It provided that if any citizen or other person, resident 
in the United States, should make a settlement on lands belonging 
to any Indian tribe, or should attempt to survey such lands, he or 
they should forfeit one thousand dollars and be liable to impris- 
onment for a period not exceeding six months. It furnished several 
summary and very efficient means of enforcing the penalties for 
such acts; 1st: by civil process to be executed when necessary by the 
Military power of the United States, in any state of the Union 
where the offender could be found, and his trial and punishment: 
where found; and 2d, by making it the duty of the military forces 
of the Federal Government to arrest all persons found on such 
Indian lands in violation of that act and to deliver them to the - 
Civil authorities of the United States in any one of the three ad- 
joining states for trial and punishment. 

The facts submitted to the President by the Creek Chiefs pre- 
sented several very grave questions for his consideration in the first 
instance viz: Ist, whether the case was of the character contemplated 
by the act of 1802, and 2d, whether the claims set up by Georgia were 
valid and whether there was anything peculiar to the conditions of 
the Indians which exempted their lands from a liability to the au- 
thority of the States that could not be questioned in regard to lands ; 
owned by any other of her citizens. 

The President took it upon himself to dispose of both of these - 
questions, decided then in favor of the Indians and informed Con- 
gress, in a message, that he had no doubt of his authority to use | 
the military force in the case presented to him, but that he had 
abstained from doing so in the first instance because the surveyors _ 
ought not perhaps to be considered as solitary transgressors but 
as the agents of a sovereign state, who would be sustained, it had 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 281 


been intimated, by her utmost power, and thus a violent collision 
might have occurred between the authorities of the two Govern- 
ments if he had immediately used the military resources entrusted 
to him. But he stated distinctly that, if the laws of the Union 
remained unaltered, and the state of Georgia persevered in her en- 
eroachments upon the Indian territory, “a superadded obligation, 
even higher than that of human arose would compel the Ex- 
ecutive of the United States to enforce the laws and fulfill the 
‘duties of the nation by all the force committed for that purpose 
to his charge.” 
q He submitted to Congress whether any further legislation was 
necessary to meet the emergency. None was suggested by him or 
‘thought proper or necessary by Congress, but the excitement pro- 
‘duced in that body by the Message was intense and the debates 
tim. unusually bitter but without any results in the way of legisla- 
ion. In the Senate the select Committee to whom the Mien 
was referred, composed in part of supporters of the Administra- 
ion, me nonsly reported a simple resolution, “that the Presi- 
ent be respectfully requested to continue his exertions to obtain 
from the Creek Indians a relinquishment of any claims to lands 
the state of Georgia,” which passed without a dissenting 
yoice. But in the House, where the power of the Administration 
was far greater, the debate and proceedings were intemperate on 
both sides. The Committee appointed by the Speaker reported 
against Georgia on all points and concluded with resolutions to 
he effect that “it was expedient to obtain a cession of the Indian 
nds within the limits of Georgia,” but that until a cession is pro- 
cured, the laws of the land as set forth in the Treaty of Wash- 
gton (the second treaty) ought to be maintained by all neces- 
ary constitutional and legal means. This report was made on the 
t day of the session, too late, of course, to be acted upon, but was 
dered to be printed. 
~The Administration relieved itself before the next session of 
Congress from all further embarrassments upon that particular 
ranch of the subject, greatly complicated by the President’s incon- 
rate Message and the ground apparently taken by the House 
mmittee in his support, by another °treaty, extinguishing the 
adian title to the residue of the lands embraced in the first treaty 
ad excluded from the second. Treaties providing for their removal 
» a limited extent were occasionally made with Indians willing to 
0, but nothing very material was effected. Those who were unwill- 
were, on the contrary, persevering in their efforts to induce their™ 
thiren to remain. The Cherokees, a powerful tribe, composed to 


° MS. III, p. 105. 


282 "AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


a considerable extent of whites, some of them educated and instructed 
in business affairs, taking the lead in carrying into effect the prin- 
ciples for which they contended, proceeded to the establishment of 
an Independent Government, framed as they insisted upon republi- 
can principles, within the bounds of Georgia, and, at page 198 of 
the 35th volume of Niles’ Register, will be found a Message from 
the principal Chiefs to the General Council of the Nation, after the 
manner of the official communications from the President of the 
United States. In it they recommended to the Council, as the imme- 
diate representatives of the People, to send a memorial to Congress 
advising that body to redeem its obligations to Georgia in some other 
way than one based on the anticipation of further cessions of land 
from them. 

The conflicts thus occasioned between the state of Georgia and 
the Cherokees can easily be conceived. These continued down to the 
Presidential election in which Mr. Adams was defeated. In his last 
Message he seems to have viewed the matter in a far different light. 
“When we have had,” he says, “the rare good fortune of teaching 
them (the Indians) the arts of civilization and the doctrines of 
Christianity we have, unexpectedly found them forming in the midst 
of ourselves communities claiming to be independent of ours and ~ 
rivals of sovereignty within the territories of the members of the © 
Union. This state of things requires that a remedy should be pro- © 
vided which, while it shall do justice to those unfortunate children” 
of nature, may secure to the members of our federation the rights 
of sovereignty and of soil,” and for an outline of a project to that 
effect he recommends to the consideration of Congress the repo 
of the Secretary of War. Turning to that document the reader | 
will find that the Secretary, Peter B. Porter, a sensible, practical ~ 
man, conversant with the Indian character and with Indian affairs, 
recommends substantially the policy contended for by those wha 
supported the claims of Georgia, including the subjection of “all 
who remain to the municipal laws of the State in which they re- 
side.” 

This Message of Mr. Adams was prepared shortly after the ele 
tion in which his political fortunes had been wrecked and when 
whatever hopes or plans he subsequently cherished, he considered 
his public life as closed. He had, as we have seen strongly com- 


resentatives, where they constituted a majority, had sustained those 
views in an able and animated report, they had converted the sub: 
ject into a material for political agitation in the Presidential 
canvass and had found it, at least so far as respected him, unavail- 
ing. He now looked upon it with the eyes of a Statesman sincerely 
desirous to set himself right with the Country and with posterity 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 283 


in regard to a matter which he could not but feel was one of the 
_ deepest import, and thus considering it, it was impossible that he 
should have failed to arrive at right conclusions. He directed his 
attention to the point of greatest prominence and of greatest hazard— 
the safety of the Union. There was a plausibility, founded exclu- 
sively on the loose character of our dealings with the Indians dur- 
ing the early period of our Government, in the pretension to politi- 
eal power set up by them and on their behalf. He found our sys- 
tem already an imperium in imperio, perhaps the most complicated 
in the World, and of course requiring the utmost care and fore- 
bearance in the administration of each, subjected in two of the 
States to the establishment within their bounds of a third Govern- 
ment claiming sovereign and independent political power, and, not 
only so, but that we were menaced with the immediate establishment 
of similar Governments in one or two other States, and exposed, if 
these succeeded, to the erection of others like them in a dozen more, 
and in all these cases one branch of the tripartite sovereignty was to 
be lodged in savages and half-breeds. The question presented to his 
mind by this state of facts was as to the probability not to say possi- 
bility of our existing national confederation being upheld under 
such a pracess—a confederation so essential not only to the welfare 
and happiness of the peoples of the United States but in a very great 
degree, to the interests of human liberty and the hopes of its con- 
 siderate friends throughout the world, and to the escape of the In- 
dians themselves from ultimate certain annihilation. Such was the 
question, stripped of immaterial issues and mystifying verbiage 
about which no sensible man, looking only to the good of the whole, 
be could it would seem, hesitate for a moment. Mr. Adams was satisfied 
| 


i ey ee 


ih dine’ 


MTR Se ee eee ee 


ms that the great hazards which environed it ought not to be encoun- 
3 tered for the sake of a claim so immature and defective as that of the 
Indians to self-government, and the language in which he admon- 
ished Congress in his last Message of the necessity of a remedy for 
the great evils with which the Country was threatened was that 
of an enlightened and patriotic statesman. 

Secretary Porter, in the report referred to by Mr. Adams said: 
“Tf the policy of colonization be a wise one, and of this I believe 
no one entertains a doubt, why not shape all our laws and treaties to 
the attainment of that object, and impart to them an efficiency that 
will be sure to effect it,’ and advised that all of the Indians who 
- would not emigrate should be subjected to the municipal laws of the 


mt CRet sis NSE” 


" 


Te aT a 


If the President and his Secretary of War had spoken thus at 
the commencement of his Administration and if he and his Cabinet 
_ had done all in their power to shape the laws and treaties of the 
_ Government to the promotion of the policy of Colonization, that great 


Fe 


i 


284 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


work would have been accomplished in their day. But we have seen | ce 
that they did neither, and it was now too late to secure its success — 
under their auspices. When the Constitution makers of France 
strove to reconcile the first Napoleon to an abridgment of his im- — 
mediate power by proposing to confer upon him authority to direct 


what should be done after his decease he promptly refused the offer — 


for the reason that “a dead man was nothing in respect to power 
whatever or whoever he may have been when alive.” The same may 
be said of a President whom a few short months will dispossess 
of his station in obedience to the decree of the People. The sceptre — 
had departed from Mr. Adams when he promulgated the words 
which I have quoted, the hopes of the supporters of his administra- — 
_ tion for restoration to power were then already turned to another — 
and their decision to the course they would take upon a question, in 
respect to which the public mind was so liable to be excited, was for 
partizan reasons, held in abeyance. 

Substantially in the state which I have described, these matters — 


stood unti] Gen. Jackson, then President elect, became President in _ 


fact; a state most unpromising for the colonization policy. He — 
forthwith: devoted his utmost efforts to the remedy of this great — 


public evil and no man ever entered upon the execution of an of- 


ficial duty with purer motives, firmer purpose or better qualifications 
for its performance. It seemed a task providentially reserved for — 
one so admir ably fitted for it by the elements of his ci oes) and — 
by his past experience. 4 
Except perhaps the single subject of slavery there seid not have — 
been one more liable to seizure and appropriation to their own ~ 
purposes by political and partizan agitators than that now under our ~ 
consideration. As the Christian religion had been the greatest — 
agent of civilization throughout the world, the Government could — 
not, in attempting to extend its blessings to the Indians, omit to 
invoke the co-operation of the Christian ministry. Clerical mis-— 
sionaries were accordingly sent among them and the Country from — 
time to time heard of the great success which had attended their — 
labours of love. Clergymen are not over liberal as partners in — 
power over a subject to the management of which their agency — 
is admitted and they soon assumed the principal guardianship of — 
the Indians, holding themselves to protect them against oppression — 
whether it might proceed from individuals or from the Government — 
and authorized to weigh the measures of the latter and to condemn — 
them if they considered them worthy of censure. Accountability 
to what is sometimes called the religious community—a class° — 
among us easily instigated to meddle in public affairs and seldom — 
free, on such occasions, from a uniform political bias, had thus 


° MS. ITI, p..110. 


ate 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY. OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 285 


_ become one of the responsibilities under which the President acted. 
_ The Society of Friends was another large interest which claimed 
the right to speak and seldom failed to make itself heard, in re- 
spect to every movement of the Government that related to the 
Indians and they too entertained apprehensions in regard to the 
course to be expected from the “unbridled democracy” of which 
President Jackson, was in their estimation, the favored leader. 

It had become manifest that the removal of the Indians could not 
be brought about by any measures of which the extension of the 
laws of the State, with the approbation of the Federal Govern- 
ment, over those who remained, after all proper means had been 
exhausted to provide for their welfare in a suitable and safe new 
home, did not form a part. That such measures would be disap- 
proved of by the powerful classes of whom I have spoken was posi- 
_ tively certain, and it had therefore become indispensable to their 
success that their execution should devolve upon a man who was 
willing, in the performance of his duties, to encounter that opposi- 
 tion—a qualification which had not yet been found in any President 
_ after the necessity for such measures had occurred. It was scarcely 
less necessary that he should be one whom experience had made 
thoroughly conversant with the Indian character, not only knowing 
them but being also well known by them as one who would do what 
be promised, whether it was an act of liberality or of severity and 
_ as one who, tho’ not disposed to withhold from them any favors 
_ that would promote their welfare and that could be extended con- 
sistently with the safety of our institutions, would not fail, at the 
_ same time, to exert all the means lawfully within his reach to accom- 
_ plish his object. 

_ Gen. Jackson entered upon the consideration -of this important 
subject at the earliest practicable moment and strove for the accom- 
_ plishment of his policy as long as there was reason to hope for suc- 
cess, regardless of obstacles which would have discouraged less san- 
_ guine minds. For the first time, I believe, since the establishment of 
| the Government, the subject of Indian affairs was specifically noticed 
| inthe Inaugural Address. As he [the President] was emphatically 
| a practical man and felt that the matter must constitute one of the 
__ leading concerns of his administration he thought the sooner public 
_ attention was directed to it the better. Within three weeks after his 
_ Inauguration having occasion to send a “ talk” to the Creeks, in rela- 
| tion to the murder by some of their people of a white man. he intro- 
_ duced to their consideration the subject of removal. He told them 
_ that he had been made President and that he now addressed them as 
their father and friend. He reminded them that in his talk to them 
_ tnany years before he had spoken of the Country west of the Missis- 
| Sippi as one where alone they could be preserved as a great nation 


286 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


and he now advised them to go there. He assured them, however, 
that if they chose to remain in Alabama, and to come under the laws 
of that State, they might rely on his protection, that their lands 
should be set off to them and their families in fee, and that they should 
be secured in all the rights and privileges enjoyed by the white peo- 
ple; that his whole course towards them should be stamped with the 
frankness and sincerity by which his dealings with the tribes had 
always been distinguished and which a full experience had satisfied 
him was the most likely to be successful in the end. He next caused 
the Indians in Georgia and Alabama to be officially informed that the 
project of establishing independent Governments within the States 
in which they resided would not be countenanced by the Executive. 
This notice was, he said, due to them, and would, he hoped, have 
the effect to nip in the bud the movement in that direction which 
commenced in Mississippi, and to discourage such undertakings, if 
they were contemplated, in the other States having Indians within 
their bounds. 

When Congress met he made to that body the most unreserved 
communication of his views upon the whole subject in his Annual 
Message. He placed the claims of the Indians upon our considera- 
tion and favor on the grounds he thought they deserved to occupy, 
and avowed his readiness to promote all constitutional and practi- 
cable measures for their gratification. He then gave his reasons for 
holding that their pretensions in respect to the organization of sep- 
arate governments were unfounded, demonstrated their impracti- 
cability, foreshadowed the ruinous results to our confederation that 
would inevitably result from any attempt to establish such a right 
in them by the power of the Federal Government, and concluded his 
explanations with the following equally specific recommenda- 
tions :—* 


1The MS. here directs the inclusion of the following: As a means of effecting this 
end, I suggest, for your consideration, the propriety of setting apart an ample district 
West of the Mississippi, and without the limits of any State or Territory, now formed, 
to be guaranteed to the Indian tribes, as long as they shall occupy it; each tribe having 


a distinct control over the portion designated for its use. There they may be secured g 


in the enjoyment of governments of their own choice, subject to no other control from 
the United States than such as may be necessary to preserve peace on the frontier, and 
between the several tribes. There the benevolent may endeavor to teach them the arts — 
of civilization; and by promoting union and harmony among them, to raise up an inter- — 
esting commonwealth, destined to perpetuate the race, and to attest the humanity and 
justice of this Government. 4 

This emigration should be voluntary: for it would be as cruel as unjust to compel 
the aboriginees to abandon the graves of their fathers, and seek a home in a distant 
land. But they should be distinctly informed that, if they remain within the limits of 
the States, they must be subject to their laws. In return for their obedience, as indi- 
viduals, they will, without doubt, be protected in the enjoyment of those possessions — 


which they have improved by their industry. But it seems to me visionary to suppose ~ 


that, in this state of things, claims can be allowed on tracts of country on which they ~ 
have neither dwelt nor made improvements, merely because they have seen them from ~ 
the mountain, or passed them in the chase. Submitting to the laws of the States, and — 
receiving, like other citizens, protection in their persons and property, they will, ere 
long, become merged in the mass of our population—Jackson’s 1st Annual Message. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 287 


_ With the manly and unequivocal recantation by his predecessor 
of the erroneous views he had at first entertained, and his virtual 
adoption of the recommendation of his Secretary of War in favor. 
of the very measure Gen. Jackson now proposed, before him, and 
considering that the political party from which alone he had any 
reason to apprehend opposition to his policy had not only brought 
the previous Administration into being but was yet fresh from a 
great battle for its continuance in power, it is not surprising that 
a man of Jackson’s training, unversed in the ways of politicians, 
‘should have counted upon a general concurrence in the praiseworthy 
views he had disclosed upon a subject so interesting to humanity 
and so important to the public interest. But he was soon furnished 
with ample reasons to convince him that any hopes and anticipa- 
tions of that character were mere delusions. That party knew, 
as well as any future event of that nature could be known, of the 
great contest with him on the Bank question which impended, and 
eagerly seized the tempting opportunity presented by the Indian 
difficulties to cripple his Administration in advance. Without sug- 
_ gesting anything of their state in respect to the other branch of 
the divine injunction, those partisans were certainly not as harm- 
" less as doves, and knowing full well that we had not as yet had no 
_ President possessed of sufficient moral courage to deal with that 
_ subject in the way in which alone it could be wisely treated they 
_ were slow to believe that this unfledged Statesman would be able 
_ to do so successfully, and they determined not to forego the ad- 
_ vantages it seemed to offer. 

_ The first step was the passage of a law clothing the Executive with 
_ adequate powers if the Indians consented to remove and the next 
to obtain their consent to its execution. Without success in the 
_ latter openly and fairly obtained, Gen. Jackson did not desire it in 
he general object however important he considered it to the public 
welfare. 

The Committees on Indian Affairs in both Houses reported a 
Bill, short, simple and comprehensive and then followed the death 
struggle for its passage, for such, especially in the House of Repre- 
sentatives, it emphatically was. The Bill authorized the President 
to cause so much of the territory of the United States, west of the 
Mississippi, as he might judge necessary to be divided into a suit- 
able number of Districts for the reception of such tribes or nations 
of Indians as might choose to exchange the lands on which they 
en resided and to remove there; to exchange such districts with 
y tribe or nation, then residing within the limits of any State or 
erritory, with which the United States had existing treaties, and 
here the lands were owned by the United States or where the latter 


288 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, — 


were bound to the States to extinguish the Indian title; to. ma 
compensation to the Indians for their improvements, anit to pr 
vide all necessary aid for their removal and for their support for 
one year afterwards, with suitable clauses securing the guarante: 
and protection of the United States as recommended by the Presi- 
dent in his Message. x 
When this Bill was taken up in the Senate, the body in which the 
subject was first acted upon, Mr. [Theodore] ‘Frelinehaeeen of New 
Jersey, moved to add to it the following section: 
Sec. 9. That until the said tribes or nations shall choose to remove, as bY 
this act is contemplated, they shall be protected in their present possessions, and 
in the enjoyment of all their rights of territory and government, as herctoraa 
exercised and enjoyed, from all interruptions and encroachments. 
The clause attempted to mark the nature and extent of the right 
' of self-government proposed to be reserved to the Indians by assu m- 
ing as a fact what was denied° that it was a right they had “ there- 
tofore exercised and enjoyed.” But the design in the use of the 
phraseology employed was to make the proposition appear less ranl 
than it would if the right intended to be reserved was simply 2 
plainly set forth in the additional section. It was meant, as 
appears from the debate, to test the principle as to the sichi of the 
Indians to maintain independent political Governments within the 
States in which they resided, under the belief that the moveme 
would involve the fate of the colonization policy and, if successf 
defeat it, as no one would for a moment believe that the Indians” 
would remove as long as the power of Congress stood pledged to sup- 
port them in the exercise of that degree of sovereignty. 
The Whig party (as the opposition was then called) rallied with 
perfect unanimity in favor of Mr. Frelinghuysen’s amendment and 
against the Bill. A more persevering opposition to a public meas re 
had scarcely ever been made. Few men would now ventur 
deny that it was a factious opposition waged to promote the in 
terests of party at the expence of the highest interests of i 
Country, upon grounds which were not tenable and for avowed put 
poses which were not practicable,—or, if practicable, could only 
become so thro’ the agency of the U. S. Army and the probable de 
struction of the Confederacy. The subject was discussed with brief 
intermission, from the 9th to the 26th April, when the additi 
section, offered by Frelinghuysen, was rejected, every whig Sen 
ator voting in favor of it as did also the only Jackson Senator fron 
Pennsylvania, and the Bill passed the Senate by a small majoi 
that Senator finally voting in its favor. The opposition did n 
expect to defeat it in the Senate. The debate and proceedings i 
that body having been principally designed for the effect 


° MS. III, p. 115. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 289 


might produce on the public mind and, through that source, on the 
popular branch of Congress. It was to the House of Representa- 
tives that they looked as the theatre of triumph and the result 
_ shewed that they had very strong grounds for the confidence they 
entertained of such a result. The majority of what were called 
_ Jackson men in that body was sixty five, but it was in a great ! 
_ degree composed of gentlemen who had shortly before professed 
different politics from the mass of his supporters and thus were not 
_ only new in the republican fellowship, but many of them not over 
well instructed or very deeply imbued in the principles of the party 
they had joined. This class of the General’s friends were pecul- 
iarly liable to be influenced by the dread of giving offence to 
the Quakers and to the religious communities, and were prone 
_ to communicate their apprehensions to their new associates. The 
_ influence of this feeling was strikingly exhibited in the vote of the 
_ delegation from Pennsylvania which, tho’ more exposed than others 
_ to a Quaker panic, was in other respects more relied upon on ac- 
- count of the very general and very strong attachment of her People 
_ to General Jackson who, in a great degree, staked the success of his 
_ administration upon this measure. Of her twenty six members (of 
whom all but one were elected as Jackson men) only six voted for 
_ the Bill, three of those subsequently voted against the previous 
_ question because it would cut off an amendment, which went to 
' defeat the measure in a round about way, two of them were with 
difficulty brought to the final vote, and such men as [James]: 
_ Buchanan and [George G.] Leiper, the latter representing a Quaker 
' district, felt themselves constrained to shoot the pit. The same in- 
~ fluences produced similar effects upon the representatives of other 
_ States and the result was that after a debate as protracted and ex- 
- cited as any that had ever before taken place in that body, and not- 
| withstanding the large nominal preponderance in favor of the Ad- 
ministration, the measure recommended by the President was carried 
_ in the House by a majority of only four on a preliminary vote and of 
| five on its final passage.* 

_ Congress had performed its duty by the enactment of the law, and 
| the Constitution as well as his oath of office imposed upon the Pres- 
ident the obligation to see to its execution. Another opportunity was 
_ thus presented to the opponents of his Administration to shew by 
| their actions that they placed a higher value upon the interests of 
| the Country and the welfare of the Indians than upon party con- 
guests. But, unfortunately for those interests and for their own 
highest good, altho’ defeated in respect to the passage of the Bill, 
4 1An act to provide for an exchange of lands with the Indians * * * and their 
remoyal west of the river Mississippi. Approved, May 28, 1830, 

127483°—voL 2—20-——19 


+ 


290 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. ~ 


they were too much encouraged by their extraordinary success in. 
making converts in the House of Representatives to heed such con- 
siderations. They foresaw as they thought the political advantages’ 
of the struggle which had been fomented by their unfounded pre-— 
tension to culminate in their triumph at the ensuing Presidential © 
election, all unconscious of the utter overthrow of their hopes which 
was gathering strength in the sober second thoughts of the People. 
They set every engine in motion to throw obstructions in the way of 
the President, and received a full measure of cooperation from their 
usual auxiliaries in great crises, the Press, the Courts of law and, 
last tho’ far from least in power and influence, the Church. 

If the question had been one of power simply the President 
would have soon settled it, but he could not act effectively, nor did 
he desire to do so, without the consent of the Indians and he was 
both too wise and too just to take any steps to obtain that consent 
which the good sense and good feeling of the Country would not 
finally approve. Those who understood his character soon became 
satisfied of this, but those who did not hoped to drive him to acts” 
of violence ah would destroy his popularity. Hence they blamed 
every thing he did, and responded to every act of resistance on the 
part of the Indians and by such measures of co-operation as were 
suited to the habits of civilized life. t 

The Cherokees refused to meet the President in Council to nego- 
tiate upon the subject of their lands, and answered his invitation by 
a legislative act denouncing the penalty of death against any one |) 
of their nation who should attempt to sell their lands without the 
assent of the National Council. In their Memorial to Congress, 
rising in their pretensions, from the encouragement they received, 
they ied to be a Sovereign State independent as well of the 
Federal Government as of Georgia, and as such one of their Chiefs 
undertook to stop the mail on its passage over their lands and re- 
sisted the exercise of criminal jurisdiction by that State [Georgia] 
within their bounds. . 

Those portions of the Press favoring the pretensions of the In- 
dians to the right of self-govenment were at the same time filled 
with encomiastic accounts of the prudence of the Cherokees and of 
their capacity for the discharge of its duties and denunciations of 
the conduct of Georgia and of the President. 

Chief Justice Marshall issued a Citation to the State of Georgia 
to appear before the Supreme Court, pursuant to a Writ of Error, 
to shew cause why a judgment of a Superior Court of that State 
against an individual for murder committed within the bounds of 
that State, but on Cherokee territory, should not be corrected and 
speedy justice done to the parties, The citation was communicated 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 291 


to the Legislature by the Governor of Georgia with a declaration 
that orders from the Supreme Court interfering with the decisions 
of their State courts in such a,matter, would so far as related to the 
Executive Department, be disregarded and any attempt to enforce 
them resisted with all the force the laws had placed at his command. 
Thus were the pacific relations between the Federal Government 
and one of the States of the Confederacy a second time endangered 
by high functionaries of the former, but the danger was avoided 
now, as at the first, by the firmness of the State authorities and an 
abandonment of their avowed intentions on the part of the former. 

Nothing further was done with the Writ of Error, but proceed- 
ings to the same end were instituted in a different form. A Bill was 
filed by Mr. Wirt, in the same Court, in favor of “The Cherokee 
Nation against the State of Georgia,” praying an injunction to re- 
strain that State from executing the laws of the State within the 
Cherokee territory. 

Georgia refused to appear to the Summons or to have anything 
to do with the proceedings. The hearing was therefore ex parte, 
but the application was notwithstanding argued at great length 
and, as the newspapers said, with great ability, by Messers. Wirt 
and Sergeant, of course for the Cherokees. The Suit was brought 
by them, claiming to be a “Foreign State” under the article of the 
Federal Constitution, defining the extent of the judicial power of 

‘the Federal Government. The Supreme Court held, unanimously, 
that their claim to be so regarded was manifestly untenable.t Thus 
ruling, there was, of course, an end of the proceeding. As the plain- 
tiffs had no right to appear in that Court in the character they had 
assumed for the purpose, they had no right to ask its opinion on 
any point in the case they had presented. But Chief Justice Mar- 
shall, who delivered the opinion of a majority of the Court, whilst 
concurring with the Whole Bench that the Plaintiffs had no right 
to bring the suit, went on notwithstanding, as he did in the famous 
ease of Marbury and Madison, to deliver an extra-judicial opinion, 
upon one of the material points presented by the case, and declared 
that “so much of the argument of counsel as was intended to prove 

_ the character of the Cherokees as a State, as a distinct political 

_ Society, separated from others, capable of managing their own 

affairs, and governing itself, has, in the opinion of a majority of © 


| the Judges, been completely successful.” He intimated also that 


“the mere question of right to their lands might perhaps be decided 
_ by the Court in a proper case with proper parties”, but as the Bill 
_ asked them to do more &c they could not interfere. Not content 


1 Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, Peters, 5, 1-80. 


292 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. = es 


with this he was pleased to add that “if it was ° true that w wrongs _ 
had been inflicted on the Cherokee nation, and that still greater 
were to be apprehended, that was not the tribunal to redress the 
past or to prevent the future.” 4 
Justices Baldwin and Johnson+ delivered separate opinions, con- — 
curring in the only point the Court was competent to decide, but dis- — 
senting from all that was said beyond. Mr. Peters, the Reporter, — 
decided to publish the case immediately, separately from the volume 
in which it would appear in the ordinary course, and to give (to use — 
his own language) “Ir. Wirt’s great argument in behalf of the 
Cherokees, which had been taken down by stenographers poalaney . 
for the purpose!” ; 
Is it possible for an intelligent mind to doubt that the design of 4 
these extraordinary proceedings, as well the extra-judicial decision - 
of the Court as the electioneering pamphlet gotten up by its Re- — 
porter, was the same, or that that design was to operate upon the 
public mind adversely to Georgia and to the President? a 
The Cherokees, as they well might do, regarded the opinion of the 
Court, on the great point in controversy between them and Georgia, ~ 
as Peprced in their favor, and contended that the President was 
bound by it and said so in an Address by their Chiefs and Head Men ~ 
to the People of the United States, which, with Mr. Peters’ Report, — 
was published and scattered over the whee Country. 
To sustain this suit it was necessary that two points, independent 
of its merits, should be decided in their favor: 1st, that the Chero- © 
kees were a foe State, in the sense of the Constitution, and, 2nd, 
that the Supreme Court was competent so far to exercise the political 
power as to enjoin the action of a State Government in the highest 
exercise of its sovereignty. It required an extraordinary stretch of 
charity to believe that their learned and intelligent counsel could 
have entertained the slightest confidence in the tenability of either 
position. The fact that the majority of a Court composed of their 
political friends, honorable men but cherishing sympathies in favor 
of the cause in which the great abilities of the counsel were em- 
ployed as strong as their own, rejected both propositions without 
hesitation, makes overwhelmingly against the good faith in which 
the proceedings were instituted. They could not therefore complain’ 
that their political opponents, as well as the cool judgment of many 
who were not politicians, regarded the whole proceedings as ficti- 
tious, not to say factious, and designed for political effect; and 1 
was a source of deepest mortification that those who moved in it had, d, 
in the course of its prosecution, succeeded in obtaining the indi 
rect countenance and aid of the Court thro’ its expression, or, 


°MS. III, p. 120. 1 Henry Baldwin and William Johnson. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 293 


‘speak more correctly, thro’ the expression by a majority of its mem- 
bers of an extra-judicial and partizan opinion, than which the dif- 
fi usion of Peters’ report and Wirt’s eloquent speech in favor of the 
“poor Cherokees” (altho’ objectionable as attempts to prostitute 
judicial proceedings to electioneering purposes, ) was far less painful. 
But the political aid derived from impressions sy stematically 
_ made on the religious community by the continued and deceptive agi- 
4 tation of this matter was still greater. Missionaries had been sent 
_ into the Cherokee Country, during the Administration of Mr. Adams, 
_ by the American Board of Foreign Missions, who were to some 
extent regarded as Agents of the Federal Caccruinarit, and, as 
such, exempted from the laws of Georgia forbidding white men 
from residing among the Cherokees without a license from the 
Governor. These men, partaking of the feelings which actuated 
their friends at home, and not indisposed to acquire the notoriety 
of political martyrdom in a political cause, busied themselves in the 
“question of removal. The Governor of Georgia asked for their 
withdrawal and they were disavowed by the Federal Government 
as persons in its service, but they nevertheless remained at their 
posts. They were informed of the law and requested to depart, 
_and, on their refusing to do so, were arrested. Declining all offers 
of accommodation ech involved their leaving the Cherokee ter- 
“ritory, they were subjected to the operation of the law under which 
they were convicted and imprisoned. It is scarcely possible now, 
_ when the delusion has passed away, and when all see that the 
‘course adopted was the wisest and best for the Indians, to realize 
th e extent to which many of our religious societies were agitated 
a and disturbed by the imprisonment of those missionaries, and there 
was no doubt that not less than eight or ten thousand voters, in 
the state of New York alone, were controlled at the succeeding Pree: 
Rienitia} election in the bestowal of their suffrages by that single 
consideration. Gen. Jackson and myself were then candidates for 
the offices of President and Vice-President and I cannot perhaps 
ive a more striking illustration of the force of that excitement 
n by relating an occurrence which fell under my observation. 
ing, previous to the election, thro’ the western part of our 
te, where the pro-Cherokee feeling had been lashed to a great 
height, I stopped for a night at the residence of a near and very 
dear relative of my own—a lady of remarkable intelligence and 
ength of character, and deeply imbued with religious feeling. 
er I had retired to my room she entered it and after a kind 
troduction and welcome soon proceeded to a spirited denuncia- 
on of our proceedings (for she associated me with the President) 
owards the Cherokees in general and the Missionaries in particu- 


294 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


lar, with the utmost severity consistent with what was due to her — 
sex and to her respect for myself, neither of which was she capable 
of overlooking. Well aware of the tenacious grasp with which 
her opinions, in matters of conscience, were held—a feature of 
her character doubtless, in some degree, derived from the Huge- 
notish blood which flowed in her veins,—and thinking the hour 
unsuitable for the argument, I made but little answer to her charges, 
and, on leaving the room, she said, yet holding the door in hand, 
“Uncle! I must say to you that it is my earnest wish that you 
may lose the election, as I believe that such a result ought to fol- 
low such acts!” 

When such feelings were in this way produced on such a mind 
towards a relative for whose welfare she cherished a solicitude as 
ardent and as sincere as she did for any other human being, her 
parents having been both, long before, removed from this world and 
she having neither brother nor sister, it is not difficult to imagine — 
how strong must have been the influence of this subject in other cases. 

Many other incidents of this great struggle, not less interesting 
than those of which I have spoken, crowd upon my recollection, but 
T do not feel at liberty to extend the space already appropriated to — 
the subject. It was my intention, in particular, to have set forth 


more fully than I have yet done the admirable bearing and sound ~ 


statesmanship displayed by Gen. Jackson throughout this period, his — 

sincere and persevering efforts to bring the Cherokees into council, ~ 
his meetings with the Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes, many of whom 
had fought by his side in the war of 1812, his renewal to them and to 
the Creeks of the advice he had given to the latter on the very point 
under consideration, immediately after the disastrous battle of the 
Horse Shoe, the restoration of the confidence of the tribes in the sin- 


cerity of his friendship for them, his success in prevailing upon them 


to conform to the policy of the Government by removing to the West, — 
and his influence upon the excited Georgians inducing them to ex- 
hibit a mildness and a conciliatory spirit in their acts which became : 
matter of comment and surprise to their and his opponents, But I 

must forego this design. s 


The day of election came on, not only under the unfavorable ~ 
circumstances I have described, but subject to the adverse and im- 


pure influences of the Bank question and the excitement produced - 
by the President’s veto. Gen. Jackson was notwithstanding re- 
elected by an immense majority and the Councils of the nation so far” 
as their members could, under the Constitution, be reached by that 
election, were replenished to overflowing with sincere friends to his” 
administration. The voice of the People produced what reason, 
justice, and policy had demanded in vain. Defense, encouragement 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 295 


and support of the Cherokees in their political pretensions were no 
longer insisted on by the anti-Jackson party. The idea of small 
Indian sovereignties swayed by savage customs and councils, within 
_ the borders of certain states of our one was exploded. The 
laws of the States according to the recommendation of Secretary 
Porter, were shaped without hindrance, to the promotion of the 
_ only rational policy—that of removing the Indians beyond the reach 
of the bad influences inevitable from association and contention with 
the white men. ° The President, forgetting or overlooking the ob- 
_ stacles that had been thrown in his way, pursued his policy with his 
accustomed energy and perseverance, and his labors were ultimately 
crowned with complete success. I say his labours for that great work 
was emphatically the fruit of his own exertions. It was his judg- 
- ment, his experience, his indomitable vigour and unr esting activity 
that secured success. There was no measure, in the whole course of 
é his administration of which he was more exclusively the author than 
_ this. His Secretary of War assisted to the extent of his power, he 
advised freely with me on all occasions and gave such weight to my 
advice, relating chiefly to the manner of doing what he thought 
ought to be done, as he thought it deserved, ie was never less 
_ but frequently more than it was really petitled to, but his were the 
_ mind, hand and spirit that controlled thr wees. 
; Gen. Jackson’s success excited as it deserved the admiration and 
_ applause of the wise and the good. He has received a large share of 
Rte gratitude and praise of the American People for the acts of 
_ his life, both in the military and civil service of his Country, but, 
in my opinion, there were none better entitled to such rewards cae 
those which affected the important subject of which I have spoken. 
_I may have considered it in more detail and at greater length than 
"was necessary, but I have been influenced by v iews which I thought 
entitled to much force. The fact that what was tose: in this matter 
_ was more exclusively his own doing than could be said of any other 
Measure of his administration and therefore furnishes a most 
reliable illustration of his character, and the inadequacy of the 
credit which these services have as yet received have been already 
noticed. But there are higher motives for a thorough review of the 
whole subject. Unlike histories of many great questions which agi- 
_ tated the public mind in their day, the account I have here given 
of the action of the Government and of political parties relates 
“to one which will, in all probability endure, in many important 
"general features, as long as the Government itself and which must 
| all that time occupy and interest the minds and feelings of our 
eople; to one, moreover, in respect to which we are, as a nation 


° MS. III, p. 125. 


es 


296 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIAT! 


of time and events. we have become the guardian oa as we h 
the benefactors. It has appeared to me that those to whose care 
the character and interests of the United States as connected gee 


views, motives and transactions of their predegeeee in le 
it on an occasion so critical as was that which I have reviewed. 


= 


‘CHAPTER XXIII. 


__ The next and scarcely less important subject to which President 
Jackson gave his attention was that of internal improvements 
- under the authority of the Federal Government. Questions in 
regard to it had constituted the staple of a very large proportion 
_ of the debates in Congress for many years before his accession to 
the Presidency; indeed, this had been the case, with brief inter- 
missions, since the termination of the War of 1812. A race of 
younger Statesmen, as has been before intimated, full of talents, 
_ commendably ambitious to secure the confidence and not indis- 
_ posed to enjoy the favors of the People, had assigned to it a prom- 
 inent position among the blessings with which they promised to 
_ improve and adorn the Country. 
Mr. Gallatin,t in 1808, in obedience to a resolution of the Senate, 
at the preceding session, offered by Mr. Worthington,’ of Ohio, 
made an elaborate report embracing the outlines of a general sys- 
- tem of internal improvements, and the subject was again referred 
- to by Mr. Jefferson in his next and last message. Having, in a 
previous message, declared the necessity of an addition to the 
- enumerated powers of Congvess to authorize such works, he now 
spoke of the disposition of a surplus revenue, the accumulation 
~ of which he déemed probable, and asked whether it should be suf- 
fered to remain unproductive in our vaults, be reduced, or be 
“appropriated to the improvements of roads, canals, rivers, educa- 
tion and other great foundations of prosperity and union under 
the powers we may already possess, or such amendments of the 
Constitution as might be approved by the States.” Mr. Calhoun 
" is entitled to the credit, be that what it may, of having been the 
first to bring the vexed question of Constitutional power before 
Congress for its immediate decision. A glance at the then state 
| of the question in respect to the power of Congress over the sub- 
| ject will here be neither out of place nor without interest. 
_ Alexander Hamilton, if not the sole author of the principle of 
implied powers, stood at the head of those whose doctrines in regard _ 
to ‘the construction of the Constitution were considered the most. 
latitudinarian. His opinion in favor of the Bank of the, United 
States and his report on manufactures were the ample fountains 
from which most if not all of these heresies proceeded. Without 
their aid he regarded the Constitution as utterly impracticable and 


1 Albert Gallatin. 2Thomas Worthington. 2 
297 


298 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


he therefore stretched his fertile imagination to the utmost to render 
that principle as efficient as possible. Yet he disclaimed in express 
terms powers in Congress to construct roads and canals, within the 
States, with or without their consent. If there was ever room for 
doubt upon that point, which there could not well be after his re- 
port on manufactures, it has been fully cleared up by recent devel- 
opments. By that report he carried the money power of the Gov- 
ernment to an extent which did not admit of enlargement, and defined 
it in terms so felicitously as to satisfy the wildest theorist. Speaking 
of other powers, the exercise of which would be useful, he gave a 
marked prominence to that we are considering: “ Symptoms of atten- 
tion to the improvement of inland navigation which had,” he said, 
“lately appeared in some quarters must fill with pleasure any heart 
warmed with a true zeal for the prosperity of the Country. These 
examples, it is to be hoped, will stimulate the exertions of the Gov- 
ernment and citizens of every State. There can certainly be no ob- 
ject more worthy of the cares of the local administrations, and it were 
to be wished that there was no doubt of the power of the national 
Government to lend its direct aid on a comprehensive plan,” and he 
then proceeds to shew why the thing could be better done by the 
latter. 

Such language coming from a man of his known dispositions can 
receive but one construction, and in his letter to Mr. Dayton, eight 
years afterwards, in which he drew up a programme of the steps 
that ought, in his judgment, to be taken by the party in power, he 
uses the following language: “an article ought to be proposed to 
be added to the Constitution for empowering Congress to open 
canals in all cases to which it may be necessary to conduct them 
thro’ two or more States or through the territory of a State and of 
the United States.” This letter, which has now, for the first time, 
come to light thro’ the publication of Hamilton’s private papers 
brings our knowledge of his opinion to the point of absolute cer- 
tainty. He was not the man to go to the People or the States for 
additional power if he believed that a claim to that which he de- 
sired was at all tenable under the Constitution as it stood. 


Mr. Calhoun’s Bonus Bill, introduced at. the first session after the — 
peace proposed to set apart and pledge the Bank Fund Bonus as a 


“fund for constructing roads and canals and improving the navi- 
gation of water courses in order &c. &c.”, and in his introductory 
speech he treated the question of power as indubitable. Referring 
to the circumstance that no measure of the kind had been ever before 
introduced he attributed the omission to the adverse state of the 
Country in regard to the finances and other causes and regarded 


1 Jonathan Dayton, 1799, In Hamilton’s Works, edited by John C. Hamilton (N. Y., 
1851) vy. 6, p. 383. 


. 
a 


: 
1 
. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 299 


his, as it in truth was, as a pioneer project. “ To perfect the com- 
munication from Maine to Louisiana, the connexion of the Lakes 
with the Hudson River, to connect the great commercial points on 
the Atlantic, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, 
Charleston and Savannah with the Western States and to perfect 
the intercourse between the West and New Orleans” were among 
the objects he contemplated. Even Timothy Pickering, altho’ he 
had no difficulty in finding excuses for supporting Mr. Calhoun’s 
Bill, could not refrain from expressing his dissent from the views 

‘the latter had taken of the Constitution, which he thought too lati- 
tudinarian:-—“ he did not admit the latitude ° of construction given 
by the gentleman from South Carolina to the terms of the Constitu- 
tion. He had quoted that part of the Constitution which said that 
Congress had power “to lay and collect taxes, duties, imports and 
excises ”—for what purpose?, in order—* to pay the debts and pro- 
vide for the common defence and general welfare”, and hence the 
gentleman had inferred that as roads and canals would provide for 
the common defence and general welfare therefore Congress had 
power to make roads and canals. If this interpretation of the Con- 
stitution be correct then the subsequent enumeration of powers was 
superfluous, for the terms “to provide for the general welfare” 
would embrace the following enumerated powers and every other 
imaginable power the exercise of which would promote the general 
welfare.” 

Mr. Clay, then Speaker, congratulated Mr. Calhoun on the honor of 
having introduced the subject, and his Country on the advantages 
she could not fail to derive from the measure proposed, and expressed 
an unequivocal opinion in favor of its constitutionality. The Bill 
was ably opposed by several and particularly that honest man and 
pure patriot, Philip P. Barbour, of Virginia, by arguments which 
Messrs. Clay and Calhoun in vain attempted to refute. It was, not- 
withstanding, passed by a small majority in the House and a larger 
in the Senate, after a specious amendment requiring the assent of the 
States to the expenditure of the money within their respective bounds. 
¥ Mr. Madison, ill at ease, I cannot doubt, from having just before 
given his assent to the re-establishment of a Bank, an act at variance 
| with principles vital to the Constitution, of which he, above all other 
| men, was entitled to the credit-of having been their enlightened 
| expounder but which he had felt himself constrained to desert be- 
"cause he thought doubtless honestly, that the abuse of those principles 
upon that point had acquired too deep and too strong root to be dis- 
 turbed, promptly interposed his veto. He did so perhaps the more 
readily under an apprehension that this additional encroachment 


Pie See me 


im 


é 
: 


ae 


° MS. III, p. 130. 


300 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


upon the Constitution might have originated in his own forgetfulness _ 
of the past. In his veto Message, with the chastity and felicity of — 
expression in which he had no equal, he placed the unconstitution- 
ality of the measure and the insufficiency of the veil which had been - 
thrown over its character by the Senate, in the plainest possible 
points of view. His message deprived the Bill of the majority it 
had obtained in the House, in which it originated, but it did not 
convince Clay, Calhoun or Webster, all of whom yoted for it not- 
withstanding the veto. Indeed Mr. Clay was so eager to place him- 
. self on record in favor of the abstract proposition of Constitutional 
\ power that, altho’ not obliged, as Speaker, to vote, there being no tie, 
he claimed the right to do so in that case. Mr. Calhoun was soon 
after appointed Secretary of War by Mr. Monroe and retired from 
Congress. In his first Report in that capacity he? . 

At the first session of the succeeding Congress the subject was 
again brought forward by a Report from Professor Tucker,? Chair- 
man of the Committee on Roads and Canals, a representative of the 
State of Virginia, tho’ not an adherent of her prevailing politics. 
His Report sustained the constitutionality and expediency of such 
measures as that which Mr. Madison’s veto had defeated and con- 
cluded with a Resolution in accordance with the Report. Mr. Clay, 
in an elaborate and able speech supported the positions he had 
before taken. This debate also brought more conspicuously into 
public view William Lowndes, of South Carolina, a man whom from 
the beginning of his public life, all regarded with much fayor. Sey- 
eral distinct resolutions were finally offered by Mr. Lowndes as a 
substitute for that reported by the Committee. That which claimed 
the right to appropriate money for the construction of post roads, 
military and other roads and to make canals and for the improvement 
of water courses passed by a majority of 15 in 164 votes. Those 
which asserted a power to construct roads and canals necessary for 
commerce between the States, to construct canals for military pur- 
poses, were severally rejected by small majorities, Other proposi- 
tions were presented but Mr. Lowndes, observing that the sense of 
the House had been fully expressed in favor of the right to appro- 


priate money for the construction of roads and canals and had thus — 


removed obstructions to propositions embracing that object, moved 
to lay the rest of the Report on the table, which motion prevailed. 


*A pencil note here states that space is left “ for Calhoun’s recommendations of 
Internal Improvements in his first Report as Secretary of War.’ Van Buren’s recol- 
lection is at fault. Calhoun’s first report as Secretary of War was very brief and did 
not discuss this subject. His last annual report, December, 1824, dealt with the matter 
in considerable fullness. For a good general account see Meigs’ Life of Calhoun NS 
1917), v. 2, 246-51 and, in the Works of Calhoun, his letter to Henry Clay, Speaker of 
the House of Representatives, Jan, 14, 1819, Vol. V, pp. 40-54; also ibid., pp. 142-6, 

* Henry St. George Tucker. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 301 


Mr. Lowndes views were throughout characterized by modesty, 
-eandour and sincerity which commanded the respect of all and con- 
ciliated for their author the esteem of those even who dissented from 
their correctness. He admitted that public works, such as were 
referred to, would in all probability be more economically and better 
constructed when the fruit of individual enterprise, or when made 
under the authority of the States, but roads and canals had, he said, 
been objects of attention to Governtient-in-ali Countries and Ae 
_ were, in his opinion, necessary works of that description that would 
_never be constructed unless by the Federal Government, and sincerely 
_ believing that Congress possessed the requisite power he was in favor 
of having them made under its authority and at the expense of the 
nation. 

_ He was unhappily obliged to retire from public life at the age of 
: forty one and died, in January, 1823 on his way to Europe in pursuit 
4 of health, nent by all who had known him and having by his 
honorable, just and distinguished tho’ unobtrusive career impressed 
the public mind with a very general belief that his chances for the 
Presidency would have been, but for his early death, better than 
those of any of his cotemporaries. 

_ In respect to the extreme power over the subject of internal im- 
‘provements—that of construction—this great effort in its behalf 
resulted in its complete overthrow. Even in respect to the power of 
“appropriation, the movement notwithstanding Mr. Lowndes’ attempt 
to swell the majority beyond its legitimate limits, could scarcely 
be otherwise regarded than as a defeat or in any the most favourable 
riew, as a barren triumph. 

_ Mr. Monroe, at the same session, re-affirmed, in his annua] Mes- 
sage, his adherence to the Virginia doctrines upon the question of 
the power of Congress to construct roads and canals, and informed 
that body in advance, very much to the annoyance of Mr. Clay, 
whose position at the moment was one of quasi-opposition to the 
Administration, that if they pressed a law for such a purpose he 
would be constrained to object to its passage. But he did not say 
‘or intimate, neither was there any reason to apprehend, nor is it 
robable that he had changed his views in respect to any other por- 
ions of those doctrines. A majority of only fifteen in a represen- 
tation numbering more than two hundred, with a minority moved 
by a single and sacred motive—to protect the Constitution—against 
Ose who were in great part seeking the advancement of local ob- 
ts which were in themselves well calculated to engender rivalries 
nd divisions, and with the impending danger of a Presidential 
eto, ofiered but slight temptation to efforts for the establishment 
a system of internal improvements under the patronage of the 
eral Government. 


3802 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


This view is fully sustained by the action of Congress from the 
period when these proceedings took place. During these four years 
the establishment of a plan for internal improvements under the 
authority of the General Government was not advanced a step, nor 
was the power of appropriation, asserted by the only resolution — 
that was pressed, exerted on a single important occasion. Those 
who, whilst friendly to such improvements were too solicitous for 
the preservation of the Constitution in its purity to authorize their — 
construction without constitutional authority, had reason to infer, — 
from’ the course of events, that their objects would be accomplished — 
by individual enterprise acting under the authority of and aided as 
far as practicable by the State Governments. But occurrences dur- _ 
ing the winter of 1822 were well calculated to put and in the sequel — 
did put a very different face upon the matter. The patience of — 
Congress having been exhausted by the perpetual drain upon the j 
Treasury for the repairs of the Cumberland Road, the House of — 
Representatives passed a Bill authorizing°® the erection of gates — 
upon it and the exaction of tolls from those who used it—the avails 4 
to be applied to keeping the Road in good condition. It passed the — 
Senate and was sent to the President for his approval. . 

Mr, Monroe, committed unqualifiedly by the declarations in his 4 
first annual Message expressive of his views, which we have no evi- _ 
dence that he even desired to change, objected to the Bill upon the © 
principles he had avowed in that document, and it was rejected. 
He accompanied his veto-Message with, or rather sent to Congress 
a day or two afterwards a voluminous essay * upon the constitutional — 
question, setting forth the arguments on which the opinion he acted © 
upon was founded and which he had, he said, from time to time, | 
as they occurred to him, reduced to writing. At the conclusion of © 
this exposition he avowed his conversion to the doctrine that Congress 
possessed, under the Constitution, an unlimited power to appro- — 
priate money in aid of the construction of roads and canals when 
constructed by others. The Virginia doctrine as expounded by ~ 
Madison’s Report upon the Alien and Sedition Laws, and thence- — 
ferth constituting a portion of the political creed of the republican — 
party, was that Congress not only had no right to construct such © 
works but that the Constitution did not authorize that body to apply © 
money to any such purpose,—that the power of Congress to ap- 
propriate the national revenue was limited to objects which it was 
authorized to undertake and that the principle which denied the 
power to construct such works necessarily denied the right to pay 
for them. Those who wish to read a felicitous exposition of this 


° MS. Ill, p. 135. 1Dec. 2, 1817, on internal improvements. 


t 
‘ 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 303 


doctrine will find it in Mr. Philip P. Barbour’s speech in the great 


_ discussion of 1818. 


Mr. Monroe admitted that such was the doctrine of 1798, and 
that it was founded on views of the Constitution which he had 
before sustained, but said that he had changed his opinion upon 
the point, and went into an elaborate argument to shew the sound- 
ness of his present theory. The time had been when such a declara- 
tion coming from Mr. Monroe would have been received with amaze- 
ment by his old political associates who yet adhered to the faith 
which had long received their common support. But antecedent and 
cotemporaneous passages in his official career had gradually paved 
the way for such an occurrence and consequently lessened their sur- 
prise when it was developed. This took place towards the middle 
of his second term, after he had received all the electoral votes, save 
one, of his old political opponents and when he was doing openly all 
that a man of his habitual prudence and circumspection could be 
expected to do to promote the amalgamation of parties and the 
overthrow of that exclusive and towering supremacy which the 
republican party had for many years maintained in our national 
councils. A diminished zeal for the support of its pure and self- 
denying principles was the natural consequence of a diminished, 
might I not say an extinguished solicitude for its continued as- 
cendency. It was almost inevitable that efforts to destroy the 
republican organization should lead to the gradual abandonment 
of the principles it sustained. Other causes contributed to give 
that direction to his feelings. At the head of his Cabinet stood Mr. 
John Quincy Adams, the latitudinarianism of whose Constitutional 
views extended beyond those of any of his cotemporaries, and su- 
perior to him in influence tho’ inferior in grade was the recognised 
favorite of its Chief, Mr. Calhoun, who had taken the lead in sup- 
port of the principle that Congress had power to make roads and 
canals as well as to pay for them, who had established the right 
of paternity towards such measures and would assert it wherever 
they were successful. Neither Mr. Wirt, nor Mr. Southard + had ever 
shewed themselves fastidious in regard to the powers of the Federal 
Government or prone to dissent from the views of the associates 
to whom I have referred, and the only Cabinet officer, Mr. Craw- 
ford, from whom, on account of his position in other respects, oppo- 
sition to this great change in the action of the President might 
have been expected, a sincere and ardent republican, was so far 
from being a strict constructionist that he had supported the Bill 
for the extension of the old Bank charter against which Mr. Clay 
made the great speech of his life. 


1Samuel L. Southard. 


304 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. = 


But whatever may have been the origin of this change in Mr. Mon- 
roe’s constitutional views there was no room for question in respect to 
its extent. The principles of the party in which he had been reared — 
had been commended to his preference not only by the circumstances 
of his location and the character of his early associates, but by his 
own habits of circumspection. Honest and considerate in his conduct — 
he was never the slave of momentary impulses but arrived at his con- 
clusions by proverbially slow degrees after long and careful delibera- 
tion. Mr. Webster exemplified his dispositions in this respect by an 
amusing anecdote. It was, he said, the President’s habit to write 
on a slate the names of the candidates for prominent places, and after 
the lists were completed, to rub out one name every day until only 
one remained, when the slate, of course, was sent to the proper office 
to have the commission made out. 

Festina lente having thus been the rule of his life, he seemed on 
the occasion of which we are now writing, to have passed in the 
twinkling of an eye from one extreme to another. The doctrine set — 
forth in the manifesto that accompanied his veto-Message on the 
Cumberland Road Bill, in regard to the power of Congress to appro- 
priate the national revenue, embraced all that Alexander Hamilton 
had ever contended for. In his famous Report upon Manufactures — 
the latter in substance thus defines the power of the Federal Govern- — 
ment to raise money: 


These three qualifications excepted, (viz: that all duties, imposts and excises 
shall be uniform throughout the United States, that no direct tax shall be laid 
unless in proportion to the federal numbers of the different States and that no 
tax or duty shall be laid on exports) the power to raise money is plenary and 
indefinite, * * * and there seems to be no room for a doubt that whatever 
concerns the general interests of learning, of agriculture, of manufactures and 
of commerce comes within the sphere of the national councils as far as regards 
an application of money. 


Mr. Monroe explained his new position substantially as follows: 


Tt is contended on the one side that as this is a Government of limited powers 

it has no right to expend money except in the performance of acts authorized 

by the other specific grants according to a strict construction of their powers; — 

* * * To this construction I was inclined in the more early stage of our 

Government; but on further reflection and observation my mind has under- 
gone a change for reasons I will frankly unfold. . 


Then after speaking of the unqualified character of the power to 
declare war and other powers, he says: 


The power to raise money by taxes, duties, imposts and excises is alike un- 
qualified, nor so do I see any check on the exercise of it other than that which 
applies to the other powers—the responsibility of the representative to his 
constituents. * * * If we look to the other branch of this power—the 
appropriation of the money thus raised,—we find that it is not less general | 
and unqualified than the power to raise it. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 305 


_ He proceeds with an endeavour to prove, by a course of reason- 
ing which he would once have himself pronounced more specious 
than solid, that the framers of the Constitution, as well as those by 
whom it was adopted, designed that both powers should be unquali- 
fied. Few persons will contend that, in respect to the power to 
raise and expend revenue, Hamilton went one iota farther than 
‘Monroe. The language of the former was more graceful and capti- 
vating but the latter took especial care that it was not more general 
or far reaching. 

_ Who, in former days, could have contemplated the possibility that 
‘a Virginia President, one of the first members of the old republican 
party and elected as such, would ever be brought to establish, so far 
as an act of the Executive branch of the Federal Government was 
‘capable of establishing it, one of the most ultra and, in practice, 
likely to be one of the most dangerous principles ever eee by 
Alexander Hamilton, and that the individual thus acting would be 
James Monroe between whom and Hamilton ° political differences 
had ripened into personal hostility extending to the brink of per- 
sonal combat? How strong must have been the influence which 
led work such a change! The laxness of the times, in respect to 
political consistency, in a great degree brought about & the agency 
of Mr. Monroe himself, doubtless had much to do with it, but I have 
always thought that political rivalry was not without its influence 
in producing a result so remarkable and so much to be deprecated. 


° MS. III, p. 140. 
127483°—voL 2—20——20 


CHAPTER XXIV. 


When the Message and the accompanying papers were sent to Con- 
gress little had been said of Gen. Jackson in connection with the 
question of succession to Mr. Monroe and, especially in the early 
part of the canvass, Mr. Adams’ claims were but lightly regarded. 
In 1817-18 Clay and Calhoun were most prominent among the heirs’ 
apparent. Altho’ exercising his usual prudence in the matter, Mr. 
Monroe was notwithstanding well understood to prefer Mr. Calhoun. 
The general conviction doubtless influenced to some extent Mr. Clay’s 
course towards the Administration. He first threw cold water on 
the efforts to bring about an amalgamation of parties, and satirized, 
with considerable severity, in one of his speeches, the attentions re- 
ceived by the President, on a Northern tour, from the old federalists. 
The Administration in turn for some time gave an equally inhospita- 
ble reception to Mr. Clay’s endeavours to bring about the recogni- 
tion of South American Independence; but when, by the progress 
of events, and the indications of public sentiment, efforts to arrest 
that measure had become unsafe, it exerted itself to take the matter 
out of Mr. Clay’s hands by means of a virtual recommendation of it 
by the President himself. I well remember Mr. Calhoun’s exulting 
remark when the Message on this subject and this effect of it were 
alluded to: “ Yes! the fruit has now become ripe and may be safely 
plucked!” It was in this way that Mr. Clay was, as he supposed, 
deprived of the credit he hoped to have acquired by his championship 
of South American Independence. His was not a temperament long 
to brook hostility open or covert. His deep dissatisfaction with the 
President’s course in announcing in advance in his Annual Message 
in December 1817, that he could not approve of a Bill authorizing the 
construction of roads or canals, has been noticed. He spoke of it in 
his great effort on that occasion as a step which if taken by the 
Crown would have been regarded in England as a breach of the 
privileges of Parliament and said that it deserved to be considered 
here, whatever might have been the President’s motive, as an attempt 
to dictate to Congress. Altho’ he treated the President throughout 
with the respect due to his station he evidently did so at the sacrifice 
of deeply seated feelings of a different character. When it is recol- 
lected that the resolutions asserting the power of Congress on that 
occasion were rejected by very small majorities he might well at- 
tribute their defeat as he did to this out of the way tho’ not posi- 

306 * 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 307 


tively irregular step of the President. The introduction by Mr. 
Clay’s alter ego, Mr. Trimble,’ of the Bill authorizing the establish- 
ment of toll-gates on the Cumberland Road may have originated 
solely, or even chiefly in the impatience of Congress at the expences 
of that Road and in a natural desire to relieve the Treasury from 
further appropriations of money to keep it in repair: but I con- 
fess that I did not see the movement in that light. To compell Mr. 
Monroe, with the sanction of his Cabinet, not less than three of 
whose members were contestants in expectancy for the Presidency, to 
apply the the general principle to which he had volunteered an 
avowal at the preceding session, of his continued adherence to the 
pet public work of the West, or, by omitting to do so, to admit its 
unsoundness, was a temptation too strong for a man like Mr. Clay 
to resist. He had been baffled by the Administration in an object 
in which I have no doubt that his feelings were earnestly engaged 
and upon his success in which he had made large calculations and 
his retort could hardly be regarded as a reckless one. 

By the provisions of the Bill, which was carried through under 
the lead of Mr. Trimble,—Mr. Clay having retired for one Congress, 
but I need not add, having his eye on Washington,—the Adminis- 
tration was driven to the alternative I have described. I am con- 
fident that Mr. Monroe and the principal members of his Cabinet so 
understood the movement. In resisting it Messrs. Adams, Crawford 
and Calhoun acted as a unit, for altho’ in regard to their political 
aspirations each engineered for himself they were equally opposed to 
Mr. Clay’s pretensions. Nor was there then much difference in the 
character of their personal relations with him, these not being in 
either case very cordial; perhaps the least so between Mr. Adams 
and himself in consequence of their then recent and angry corre- 
spondence in regard to occurences at Ghent. The movement was 
met, as was to have been expected from men of their calibre, by 
an act of a strong stamp, the extent and bearing of which Mr. Clay 
can hardly have foreseen. The veto was promptly interposed, and 
so far the Administration was successful, but by the accompanying 
Presidential manifesto, Mr. Monroe, changing the opinions of his 
whole previous life, exposed the national treasury to appropriations 
| to any extent for the construction of roads and canals and internal 
| improvements of every description. 

_ Mr. Clay was not in a situation to take advantage of this re- 
markable somersault of his opponents, for he at that time permitted 
/ no man to go beyond him in latitudinarian constructions of the 
) Constitution. Of this the Administration was well aware, but it 
' forgot that he was not the only or the principal observer of its 


1 William A, Trimble, of Ohio, 


308 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


course. It overlooked the circumstance in the eagerness of the — 
struggle, that. there was yet a large segment of the old republican — 
party sufficient to form the nucleus for a subsequent successful rally, 
which had not been carried away by the “era of good feeling,” 
which tho’ perhaps not much surprised, was sorely grieved by an 

act of such flagrant backsliding on the part of the President of 
their choice and who saw in it the fulfilment of the forebodings 
which had been excited by his previous dalliance with the opposi-_ : 
tion. By the utter loss of the confidence of this class Mr. Monroe 
and those for whose advancement he was desirous, doubtless sin- 
cerely and honestly, sustained a far greater injury than any tem- 
porary advantage over Mr. Clay could make good. 

The veto was interposed near the close of the session and nothing 
further was done upon the general subject but the struggle was re- 
sumed at the earliest practicable moment. 

Mr. Hemphill+ as Chairman of the Committee on Roads and Canals 
had, at the same session, reported a Bill to procure plans and surveys 
preparatory to the establishment of a general system, but it was 
not acted upon. At the beginning of the next he had that Bill ~ 
committed to the Committee of the Whole. It was considered, 3 
and a motion by Mr. Barbour to strike out the first section, on con- 
stitutional grounds, failed under the influence of the veto, and 
the Bill would have passed but for a new move upon the political 
chess board that prevented it. The legislation of Congress was 
obviously upon the point of receiving the direction which was 
designed to be given to it by Mr. Monroe’s veto and the accompany- 


ing expositions of his new opinions. The policy of the Adminis-— | 


tration, that of abandoning the power of construction and of con- 


fining the agency of the Federal Government to appropriations of © 


money in aid of Works constructed by the States, or by individuals 
under their authority,—was on the point of triumphing over the 
policy of Mr. Clay, which went far beyond it, when the Bill was 
tabled on the motion of Mr. Hardin,? of Kentucky, a friend of Mr. 
Clay, and a motion to take it up afterwards refused by the strong 
vote of 111 to 42, on which division seven of the nine Kentucky — 
members, all ardent advocates for internal improvements by the 
General Government, together with several prominent Clayites from 
the West, and from other parts of the Union, voted against further 
action upon the subject; and nothing further was done during the 
session of 1822-8. 

In his annual Message, at the next° session, 1823-4, President 
Monroe came to the aid of the policy which his communication to 
the previous Congress had been designed to install and which the © 


1 Joseph Hemphill, 2 Benjamin Hardin, ° MS, III, p. 145, 


oo - AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 309 
closing movement on the subject at the last session seemed destined 
to check, and reiterated his opinion in favor of the power of Con- 
gress, recommending an appropriation for the employment of the 
‘requisite number of Engineers to make the necessary preparatory 
examinations for Canals connecting the Ohio with the Chesapeake 
_and also for connecting the waters of the Ohio with Lake Erie. Mr. 
Hemphill reported his Bill and it was elaborately discussed. Mr. 
Clay, who had been re-elected and again chosen Speaker, presented 
himself at the very threshold of the debate, denied in toto the doc- 
_trines of the veto-Message, insisted that if Congress had not the 
right to cause those works to be constructed, it had no right to pay 
for them or to appropriate money in aid of their Sete aeatea 
claimed that the Constitutional question upon that point arose upon 
' this Bill and would be decided by it, &. &c. Mr. Hemphill, still 
- Chairman of the Committee on Roads and Canals, concurred in the 
"views expressed by Mr. Clay and advocated the passage of the Bill 
‘on the same grounds. The discussions were still more elaborate than 
those of 1818, and drew out the power of the House. That pure and 
‘inflexible sentinel on the ramparts of the Constitution, Philip P. 
Barbour, moved again to strike out the first section of the Bill, on 
the ground of a want of power in Congress to construct and a 
“consequent want of power to appropriate money for surveys. His 
‘motion failed by a vote of 109 to 74, and the Bill was finally passed. 
’ Nothing more was done upon the subject at that session, and so the 
‘matter stood at the time of the Presidential election of 1824. 

Making all reasonable allowance for the possibility that the ad- 
“mitted ardour of my political life may continue to influence my judg- 
ment more than I imagine it does, I feel confident that no well 
balanced mind can review the facts and circumstances to which I 
have referred—established as they are by the recorded testimony of 
the actors themselves—without admitting the justness of my con- 
clusion that the important principle contended for by the advocates 
of internal improvements by the Federal Government was used by 
its professed supporters as a political shuttle-cock which they tossed 
yackward or forward according to the feelings and exigencies of the 
moment. Advancing, receding or standing still, the acts of the 
pe ies plainly appear now, when passion has subsided and when 
eir projects have been either abandoned or jostled aside by the 
arch of time and events, to have been controlled by partisan views 
ler cover of loud professions for the public good. Nor can this 
4 arge be limited to those of whom we speak. It ce a vice inseparable 
from political conflicts that in a large majority of cases the interests 
of parties and of those whose public fortunes they desire to advance 
are consulted before those of the Country. It aouid perhaps not 


810 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


be going too far to say that the exceptions are only when such a 
course would so palpably disclose the real motive to the general pub- 
lic as to defeat its purpose or when the direction of affairs falls to 
the hand of a man who takes particular pride in the adoption of 
measures commonly considered unpopular when he can satisfy his 
own mind that he is promoting the public interest. 

The People having failed to elect a President, Mr. Adams was — 
raised to the head of the Government by the House of Representa- _ 
tives, and Mr. Clay was placed at the head of his Cabinet. They — 
both held that Congress had power to cause to be constructed and 
paid for out of the national revenue all such internal improvements 
as would, in its judgment, be conducive to the common defence and 
general welfare and we have never had reason to believe there was 
a single dissentient from that opinion in the new Cabinet. There 
was therefore no constitutional restraint upon the action of Con- 
gress in this matter other than that which might be expected from 
members of the old republican party who yet adhered to the prin- — 
ciples of their predecessors, but who constituted minorities in both 
branches of the national Legislature. The results of this state of 
things may well be imagined, especially by all who have had op- 
portunities to observe the facility with which members of Congress 
come to regard everything that can be carried home from the pub- 
lic treasury as lawful spoil and the zeal with which they struggle 
to secure the expenditure in their own districts of whatever can 
be extracted from it. The execution of Hemphill’s act, authoriz- 
ing the President to cause surveys and plans for public works to 
be made, exhibited a striking view of the character and tendency 
of this disposition on the part of the representatives and their con- | 
stituents. So difficult was it for the War Department to satisfy — 
itself for the purpose of discrimination of the real character of dis- 
tant claims to notice and so pressing the solicitations that every 
corner of the Country was fast being surveyed preparatory to im- — 
provements of some kind, for the most part of a purely local char- — 
acter, and so flagrant did these abuses become that the wisest friends 
of the system insisted, in its defence, that the law should be so al- 
tered as to make a specific act of Congress necessary in each case. 

The condition of things at the period of Gen. Jackson’s elevation to 
the Presidency was thus described in one of his annual Messages. 
Speaking of the claim of power in Congress to make internal im- 
provements within a State, with the right of jurisdiction sufficient 
for its preservation, he says: 


SQA en the > 


Nee es See ee 


Yet, we all know that notwithstanding these grave objections, this dangerous 
doctrine was at one time apparently proceeding to its final establishment with 
fearful: rapidity. The desire to embark the Federal Government in works of 
Internal Improvement prevailed in the highest degree during the first session 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. oe 


the first Congress that I had the honor to meet in my present situation, and 
hen the Bill authorizing a subscription on the part of the United States for 
k in the Maysville and Lexington turnpike company passed the two Houses, 
e had been reported by the Committees on Internal Improvements, Bills 
Ei aining appropriations for such objects, inclusive of those for the Cumber- 
land Road, and for harbours and light houses, to the amount of about one 
hundred and six millions of dollars. In this amount was included authority to 


to a great extent and the residue was principally for the direct construction of 
‘Roads by this Government. In addition to these projects which had been 
presented to the two Houses under the sanction and recommendation of their 
A respective Committees on Internal Improvements, there were then still pending 
before the Committees, and in memorials presented, but not referred, different 
_ projects for works of a similar character, the expense of, which cannot be 
estimated with certainty but may have exceeded one hundred millions of 
Spans” 


~ Among the Bills referred to was one to authorize the construction 
4 of a road from Buffalo to New Orleans which failed by a majority of 
a only fifteen, and was reconsidered by a majority of eight less than 
two weeks before the interposition of the veto; besides numerous 
other cases of corresponding magnitude. 


1 Sixth annual message, Dec. 2, 1834. 


CHAPTER XXV. 


The points in our domestic concerns which at this time occupied 
the largest share of President Jackson’s persona] attention were 
the Bank and the- removal of the Indians. The engrossing char- 
acter of the latter has been already described and that of the 
former will be exhibited in its turn. Having for several years 
made the subject of Internal Improvements by the Federal Gov- 
ernment my stydy, apprehensions of the evils their prosecution, 
as the Constitution stood, might entail upon the Country had be- 
come grave, and sincerely believing that the adverse current which 
had set in that direction might and could only be arrested thro’ 
the General’s extraordinary popularity I early and assiduously 
pressed the matter upon his consideration. He embraced my sug- 
gestions not only with alacrity but with that lively zeal with which 
he received every proposition which he thought could be made 
conducive to the public good. I propose to give a succinct account — 
of the steps that proceeded from our conversations; and I will 
first briefly notice some of the General’s characteristic qualities by 
which their advancement was essentially promoted. It is however — 
far from my intention to attempt a complete portraiture of indi- 
vidual character. I am conscious that such attempts often, not 
to say generally, manifest the° ambition of the author to shew — 
his skill in depicting a perfectly good or an absolutely bad char- 
acter instead of a desire to portray his subject as he really was, 
and that the picture, when finished is thus a reflection of his — 
imagination rather than a reliable representation of real life. I _ 
nope to make the world better acquainted with the true character — 
of Andrew Jackson than it was before, but I design to do this — 
chiefly by correct reports of what he said and did on great occasions. — 

Although firm to the last degree in the execution of his resolution — 
when once formed, I never knew a nian more free from conceit, or 
one to whom it was toa greater extent a pleasure, as well as a_ 
recognized duty, to listen patiently to what might be said to him upon ~ 
any subject under consideration until] the time for action had arrived. - 
Akin to his disposition in this regard was his readiness to acknowl- 
edge error whenever an occasion to do so was presented and a 
willingness to give full credit to his co-actors on important occasions — 
without ever pausing to consider how much of the merit he awarded 
was at the expense of that due to himself. In this spirit he received 


° MS. III, p. 150. 
312 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 313 


the aid of those associated with him in the public service in the 
_ preparation of the public documents that were issued under his name, 
- wholly indifferent in regard to the extent to which their participation 
_ was known, solicitous only that they should be understood by those 
to whom they were addressed as a true record of his opinions, his 
" resolutions and his acts. That point secured he cared little either as 
to the form of words in which they were expressed, or as to the 
agency through which the particular exposition was concocted. 
Neither, I need scarcely say, was he in the habit of talking, much ~ 
_ less of boasting of his own achievements. Content with the part he 
had actually taken in the conduct and solution of any important 
_ public question and never having reason to complain of the opinions 
E formed and expressed of his acts by a large majority of his Country- 
men he had neither a desire nor a motive to parade his own or to 
shine in borrowed plumes. I have already spoken of Gen. Jackson’s 
early preference for the self-denying theory and strict-construction 
doctrines of the old republican. school and have also, I believe, 
~ noticed the circumstance that when quite a young man and a younger 
politician he chose rather to expose himself to the odium of recording 
his name against a vote of confidence in and thanks to Gen. Wash- 
ington than to suffer himself to be caught in the trap set for him 
- and his republican associates by Fisher Ames and company. The 
design of that artifice was so to connect an approval of the measures 
_ which the federalists in Congress had sustained and which the repub- 
- licans had opposed with an expression of the favorable sentiments 
universally entertained towards Gen. Washington and his motives 
in all things, as to put it out of the power of the latter to stand by 
their avowed opinions without refusing to concur in that expression. 
_ They snapped the cords with which it was thus attempted to fetter 
_ them and Gen. J ackson’s vote on that occasion was urged against him 
~ when he became a candidate for the Presidency, some thirty years 
after. 
But the principle of internal improvements by the Federal Gov- 
ernment, so far from being acted upon when he was first in Con- 
gress, was, as has been seen, disavowed by the great leader of the 
administration, and a large share of Gen. Jackson’s time was spent 
inthe camp whilst the subject was debated by the rising men of the 
| day from 1816 to 1828, when he re-appeared on the floor of Con- 
gress. There was besides a peculiarity in his position at the latter 
| period which, tho’ it could not—as nothing could—lead him, to do 
| wrong when it became necessary to act, was nevertheless well calcu- 
| lated to lessen somewhat, for the moment at least, his active partici- 
| pation in this particular branch of legislation. To give to that 


1 For an account of this sce Parton’s Life of Jackson (N. Y., 1860), v. 1, 205-212. 


314 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


peculiarity the weight to which it was entitled the reader must bear : 
in mind the influence exerted by Pennsylvania in bringing Gen. — 
Jackson forward for the Presidency, an influence which will not I 
think be over-estimated when it is regarded as having controlled the 
result; and this consideration deserves to be constantly remembered 
whilst canvassing the merits of his subsequent course upon several 
very important points. 

Pennsylvania is in every sense of the word a great state and 
worthy of high respect—great in her material resources and great in 
the constant industry, the morality and general intelligence of her 
People. When to the credit she derives from these sources is added 
that which has naturally accrued from the moderate and sound 
character of her general course it will be seen how well she has 
deserved the honor shewn her by her sister States in the title with 
which they have distinguished her of “the key stone of the arch of 
the Union.” ; 

It is nevertheless true that she has for a long time presented *a 
favorable field for the agitation of political questions which ad- 
dress themselves to special interests in the communities upon which 
they are pressed. Internal Improvements by the Federal Govern- 
ment, a high protective tariff and a Bank of the United States had, 
for many years before Gen. Jackson’s accession to the Presidency, 
been regarded as favorite measures with the good people of Penn- 
sylvania. In respect to the first, which is now the subject of our 
consideration, both of the great Reports of the Committees on Roads _ 
and Canals, at the period when it embraced a large share of the 
attention of Congress, were from Pennsylvanians,—Mr. Wilson? and 
Mr. Hemphill. Yet these measures and the question of the removal 
of the Indians, which had so strongly excited their misdirected sym- 
pathies, were destined to be the principal domestic subjects on which — 
Gen. Jackson’s Administration, if he succeeded in the election, was 
to be employed. With the two last, (the Bank and the Tariff) he 
had made himself familiar and as to them his course was fixed; and, 
foreseeing the necessity he would be under upon those points to 
run counter to the wishes of his Pennsylvanian friends at the very 
threshhold of hig administration, it was natural that a man of his 
generous temper, and of whose character fidelity to friendship was — 
the crowning grace, should have been desirous to avoid any addition — 
to the issues between himself and his no Jess generous supporters, as 
far as that could be avoided without dereliction of duty. 

It was under such circumstances, and never having made the — 
constitutional question in relation to the power of Congress over 
the matter a subject of critical examination, that he voted in 


: 


1 Henry Wilson, 


ee ee eg ee 


— 


s 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. $15 


1893-4 and 5, in favor of the acts “to provide for the necessary sur- 
_yeys for roads and canals”, anc “uthorizing a subscription to the 
stock of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company » and a few 
other propositions of similar import, which votes were vehemently 


urged, by his opponents, against his subsequent course. 

My débué in Congress had not been free from a like discrepancy. 
The bill providing for the erection of toll-gates on the Cumberland 
Road came before us a few months after I had taken my seat in the 
Senate of the United States and I gave a silent vote in favor of it. 
Mr. Monroe’s veto, which would have shed enduring honor on his 
name, if he had suffered it to stand alone, brought me to instant and 
thorough examination and reflection. It did not take me long to 
satisfy myself that I had acted under a grave mistake and I em- 
braced an early opportunity to acknowledge my error on the floor of 
the Senate. Convinced also of the inexpediency as well as uncon- 
stitutionality of the construction of works of internal improvement 
under the direct or indirect authority of the Federal Government, so 
long as the Constitution remained as it was I became earnestly 
solicitous not only to arrest the course of legislation on the subject, 
which was then making fearful progress, but to devise some way by 
which it could be placed on a better and a safer footing. My name 
will be found recorded against all the Bills which the General voted 
for and I believe against every similar proposition subsequen# to the 
act to erect toll-gates on the Cumberland Road. I have now care- 
fully examined the Journals of Congress and reviewed my official 
‘acts to the close of my public life, and can, I think, safely challenge 
a comparison with the straitest of the strict-construction sect in 


_ regard to° a faithful adherence to the principles of that school, with 


the single exception of which I have spoken. When I recall the 


names of the many good and pure men who made themselves hon- 


erably conspicuous in the support of those principles, particularly” 
among the Statesmen of Virginia and North Carolina, I am sensible 
of the boldness of this proffer, but even then do not shrink from it. 
Not content with steadily voting against all unauthorized measures 
of the character referred to, and fearing from what was daily pass- 
ing before my eyes, that it would not be long in the power of those 
who were faithful to the principles of the Constitution to arrest or 
even to check the torrent of reckless legislation which had set in so 
powerfully, I proposed an amendment of the Constitution, the object 
of which was to make that lawful which was then illicit and to pro- 
tect the public interest against abuses by wholesome constitutional 
restraints, and which I insert here, with the brief remarks with which 


_ I introduced it: 


° MS. III, p. 155. 


roads and canals. He said he was as much opposed as any man to frequent 


| ever be settled. If the General Government has not now the power, Mr. V. B. — 


nin 


~perious necessity of some Constitutional provision on the subject. It was 


~~ a ey * ae 
316 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 


- Mr. Van Buren rose, in pursuance of notice given on Wednesday last, to 
ask leave to introduce a joint resolution, proposing an amendment to the Consti- 
tution of the United States, on the subject of the power of Congress to make 


alterations of the form of government under which we live, but he would make 4 
no apology for bringing this matter before the Senate, in so imposing a form y 
as that of an amendment to the Constitution. He would now do so, because he — 
was entirely convinced that no one could dispassionately consider the present — 
state of the question, to which his resolution relates, without feeling the im- 


not his intention, at this time, to enter into the discussion of the matter; he 
would only submit one or two general remarks in relation to it. Of the im- 4 
portance of the question, it was not necessary to speak, Suffice it to say that, — 
in its scope, it embraces the funds of the nation to an unlimited extent, and 
in its result must affect, as far as the agency of the Federal Government was y 
concerned, the future internal improvement of a great and flourishing country. | 
Is the power to make roads and canals, within the States, now vested in the - 
Federal Government? Individuals, said Mr. Y. B., may give their impres- — 
sions, with their reasons for the various ingenious constructions they put 
upon the different parts of the Constitution, to make out that this power exists ; 
but all candid men will admit that there are few questions more unsettled. ¥ 
Whilst, in some States, the power is universally conceded, and its exercise — 
loudly required, in others, its existence is as generally denied, and its ex- © 
ercise as ardently resisted. Is there cause to believe that, as the Constitution . 
now stands, a construction will obtain, which will be so far acquiesced in — 
as to be regarded and enforced as one of the established powers of the General _ 
Government? He thought there was not. For about twenty years, this sub- 
ject had been one of constant and earnest discussion. Efforts have at various — 
times been made in Congress to exercise the power in question. They have — 
met sometimes with more, and sometimes with less, favor. Bills, containing — 
the assertion, and directing the exercise of this power, have passed the two. 
Houses, and been returned, with objections, by two successive Presidents, and 
failed for want of the Constitutional majority. The last Congress and the © 
ixecutive- were arrayed against each other, upon the question, and as far as” 
i recent vote of the other House may be regarded as evidence of the present — 
opinion of Congress, there is every reason to believe that such is now the case. — 
The Government has now been in operation rising of thirty years; and al- © 
though the subject has always been a matter of interest, no law clearly em- — 
bracing the power has ever yet been passed. There is, therefore, but little 
reason to hope that, without some Constitutional provision, the question will — 


Said that he for one thought that, under suitable restrictions, they ought to 
have it. As to what those restrictions ought to be, there might, and probably — 
would, be diversity of opinion. But, as to the abstract proposition, that as 
much of the funds of the nation as could be raised, without oppression, and : 
as are not necessary to the discharge of existing and indispensable demani 
upon the Government, should be expended upon internal improvements, under — 
restrictions regarding the sovereignty and securing the equal interest of the 
States, he presumed there would be little difference of opinion. He could no a 
but hope, that those who think the better construction of the Constitution is, — 
that Congress now have the power, would also consent to some amendment, 4 
They must, at all events, admit that it is far from being a clear, and cer-— 
tainly not a settled matter. and in yiew of the danger always attending the 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 8317 


-cise of a doubtful right by the Federal Government against the persevering 
0 sition of the several States, they would decide whether, instead of con- 
testing this matter as it has been done for so many years, it would not be more 
the interest of the nation, as well as the credit of the Government, to place 
matter on well defined ground. There were many strong reasons why he 
thought this course ought to be pursued, and which, at the proper time, he 
vould take the liberty to urge. For the present, he would simply add that, 
ependent of the collisions of State interests, which this power is more likely 
2 any other to produce, the exercise of it in the present state of the Con- 
tution, and with an Executive whose reading of it should be different from 
of the present and the two who last preceded him, could not fail to be 
‘grossly unequal among the States; because it is well known that there were 
“some States who have invariably, and who will, as long as they prefer the 
; inyiolability of the Constitution to their local interest, continue to oppose the 
exercise of this power with them. Without, therefore, the ability to prevent, 
“they would be excluded from the benefits of its exercise. The course now pro- 
posed had been earnestly recommended to the last Congress by the present 
cutive, and, when the subject came up for discussion, he would endeavor 
show that its adoption was called for by the best interests of the nation. 
‘Leave was then granted, and Mr. Van Buren offered the following resolu- 
which was read, and passed to a second reading: 
“ Resolved, &c., That the following amendment of the Constitution of the 
‘United States be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States: : 
_ “Gongress shall have power to make roads and canals; but all money appro- 
ed for this purpose shall be apportioned among the several States accord- 
ing to the last enumeration of their respective numbers, and applied to the 
making and repairing of roads and canals within the several States, as Con- 
gress may direct; but any State may consent to the appropriation by Con- 
‘eress of its quota of such appropriation in the making or repairing of roads 
‘and canals, without its own limits; no such road or canal shall, however, be 
made within any State, without the consent of the Legislature thereof, and all 


bb ie 3 


such money shall be-So expended under their direction. 


In December, 1825, I submitted to the Senate, as a substitute for 
the previous proposition, the following motion and the remarks that 


follow: 
_ “Resolved, That Congress does not possess the power to make Roads and 
ianals within the respective States. 
esolved, That a select committee be appointed, with instructions to pre- 
and report a Joint Resolution, for an amendment .of the Constitution, 
cribing and defining the power Congress shall have over the subject of 
ternal Improvements, and subjecting the same to such restrictions as shall 
effectually protect the sovereignty of the respective States, and secure to them 
a just distribution of the benefits resulting from all appropriations made for 
that purpose.” ; 
Pin introducing these resolutions— 

Mr. Van Buren said, that it would be recollected that he had, some days 
e, given notice of his intention to ask for leave to introduce a joint resolu- 
nb, proposing an amendment of the Constitution on the subject of the power 
Congress over the subject of internal improvements. Upon the suggestion 
gentlemen who feel an interest in the subject, and think the principal object 
n, in that way, be better effected, he had consented so far to change the 


1Jan. 22, 1824,—Annals of Congress, 18th, ist, Vol. I, p. 134. 


318 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. — 2 . 


course originally contemplated, by substituting resolutions expressive of th = 
sense of the Senate on the Constitution, as it now is, and proposing the appoint 
ment of a select committee to report upon the subject, under such instruction 
as the Senate may think proper to give. Such resolutions he would now take_ 
the liberty of submilting. He did not, of course, wish to press their immediate — 
consideration, but would call them up at as early a day as would cumport with 
the state of public business and the ordinary course of proceeding in the 
Senute. He hoped he would be excused for expressing an earnest wish that the 
conceded importance of the subject would induce gentlemen to turn their atten- : 
tion to it as soon as they conveniently could, to the end that, when it was taken a 
up, it might be carried to a speedy decision, and not exposed to those unprofit- ; 
able delays and postponements which had heretofore attended measures of a simi-— 
lar character, and ultimately prevented an expression of the sense of the Senate 
on their merits. He deceived himself, if there was any matter in which, at this — 
moment, their constituents felt a more intense interest, than the quéstion of — 
the rightful and probable agency of the General Government in the great work — 
of Internal Improvement. Whilst, in the States, measures of that description 
had been harmonious in their progress, and, as far as the means of the States — 
would admit of, successful in their results, the condition of things here had 
been of a very different character. From the first agitation of the subject, the 
constitutional power of Congress to legislate upon the subject had been a _ 
source of unbroken, and, frequently, angry and unpleasant controversy. The 
time, he said, had never yet been, when all the branches of the Legislative — 
Department were of the same opinion upon the question. yen those who . 
united in the sentiment as to the existence of the power, differed in almost 
everything else in regard to it. Of its particular source in the Constitution, 
its extent and attributes, very different views were entertained by its friends. — 
There had not been anything in the experience of the past, nor was there any- 
thing in the prospect of the future, on which a reasonable hope could be 
founded, that this great subject could ever be satisfactorily adjusted by any 
means short of an appeal to the States. The intimate connexion between the 
prosperity of the country and works of the description referred to, would always - 
induce efforts to induce the General Government to embark in them, and there 
was but little reason to believe that its claim of power would eyer be abandoned. ; 
AS little reason was there, in his judgment, to expect that the opposition to it 
would ever be given up. The principles upon which that opposition is founded ; 
the zeal and fidelity with which it has hitherto been sustained, preclude such 
an expectation. If this view of the subject was a correct one, and it appeared 
to him that it was, he respectfully submitted it as a matter of imperious duty, 
on the part of Congress, to make a determined effort to have the question 
settled in the only way which can be final—an amendment of the Constitution, 
prescribing and defining what Congress may, and what they shall not do, 
with the restrictions under which what is allowed to them shall be done. It 
appeared to him that not only every interest connected with the subject, but 
the credit, if not safety, of our enviable political institutions, required that 
course; for it must be evident to all reflecting men, that the reiterated com- 
plaints of constitutional infraction must tend to relax the confidence of the 
People in the Government, and that such measures as may be undertaken upo 
the subject must be constantly exposed to peril from the fluctuations of the 
epinion of successive Legislatures. The subject, he said, had been viewed in 
this light by some of the best and ablest men the country has produeed. AS 
early as 1808, the propriety of an appeal to the States upon the point in ques- 
tion, had been-suggested by Mr. Jefferson, in his last message to Congre Si 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 319 
+ 
_ ‘The same course had been recommended by Mr. Madison, and the recommenda- 
_ tion repeated by Mr. Monroe. 
As yet, no decided effort to effect this great object had been made; he per- 
mitted himself to hope that such effort would pow be made. It was true, he 
_ said, the subject had not been referred to by the present Executive, and the 
_ reasons why he had not done so were apparent, from the communications he 
has made to us. From those, it appeared that the President entertained opin- 
_ ions, as to the power of Congress, which removed all difficulties upon the 
a subject. Bat Mr. V. B. said that, although that circumstance might possibiy 
_ diminish, it certainly did not obviate the necessity of now acting upon the 
subject, as the Senate were not left to conjecture as to the fact, that there 
5 : existed a discordance of opinion between the Executive and portions, at least— 
how large time would shew—of the other branches of the Legislative Depart- 
ment. Mr. V. B. said that, entertaining such views upon the subject, he had 
felt it his duty to bring the subject thus early before the Senate, and when 
the proper period for discussion arrived, would avail himself of their indul- 
gence to assign his reasons for the course proposed.’ 
_ These movements excited the attention and received the appro- 
bation of Mr. Jefferson and raised for the moment the drooping 
spirits of many sincere State-rights men. It soon, however, be- 
- eame evident that there was no reasonable hope for their success. 
It was obvious that the Virginia and Kentucky doctrines of Ninety 
_ Hight had been. too sticcessfully derided and contemned to leave, 
at that moment the slightest ground of confidence in the adoption 
- of any such proposition. I therefore, after postponing its considera- 
tion from year to year in the hope of more favorable indications, 
suspended further efforts of that nature. But it will be seen that I 
was not idle, and that my failure was not my fault. I prepared, 
after much reflection and laborious examination a brief” for the 
_ discussion of the subject, in which I take mora pride than in any 
of my speeches and which, under the sincere tho’ too probably mis- 
- taken belief that I have not formed a partial estimate of it, I have 
directed to be published with such of my speeches as those who 
come after me may deem worthy of so much notice. If the mad 
_ schemes of that day should ever be revived those who take a part in 
defeating them may perhaps find in these notes useful suggestions. 
They will at all events prove the deep interest that I took in the 
matter and what follows will shew that in all probability they ex- 
erted, altho’ in a way very different from the one originally intended 
for them, a salutary influence upon the great measure of relief to 
the Country from the evils of spurious legislation upon this great 
; subject. 
_ None but the men who were active and conspicuous in the serv- 
ice of the Federal Government at that day, and of these now few 


3 1 Dec. 20, 1825.—Debates in Congress, 19th, 1st, Vol. It, p20. 
®2This brief is not found either in the Van Buren or the Jackson Papers in the Library 


of Congress. 


320 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


remain amongst us, can form any adequate opinion of the power 
and influence which those who had embarked their political for- 
tunes in attempts to commit the General Government irretrievably 
to the promotion and construction of Internal Improvements, had 
acquired both in Congress and among the most alert and enter- 
prising portions of the People. The wild spirit of speculation, to 
whose career our ever growing and ever moving population and 
our expanded and expanding territory offered the fairest field, be- 
came wilder over the prospect before it and the wits of Congress- 
men were severely tasked in devising and causing to be surveyed and 
brought forward under captivating disguises the thousand local 
improvements with which they designed to dazzle and seduce their 
constituents. It required an extraordinary degree of resolution in a 
public man to attempt to resist a passion that. had become so ramp- 
ant, but this consideration might stimulate but could not discour- 
age Gen. Jackson so long as he was convinced that the course 
presented for his consideration was the path of duty. He was 
unfeignedly grateful to Pennsylvania for what she had done for 
him, he knew well that upon this question as upon those of the 
removal of the Indians and of the Bank she had taken a lead in 
the wrong direction, he was extremely loth to add another to the 
great points upon which his duty would compel him to throw 
himself in the way of her gratification, but for all and against 
all such appeals and motives he promptly opposed the sugges- 
tions of right, and the ever present and ever operative sense of an 
official Ghee superior to personal feeling. | 
He appreciated to their full extent the arguments in support of — 
the inexpediency of the legislation which he was asked to arrest, 
whilst the Constitution remained unaltered, but preferred to meet 
the question on constitutional grounds. No Cabinet councils were ° 
called: not another member of the Cabinet was consulted before 
his decision had become irrevocable. It was understood between us — 
that I should keep an eye upon the movements of Congress and 
bring to his notice the first Bill upon which I might think his in- 
terference would be preferable, and that when such a case was pre- 
sented, we would take up the question of Constitutional power and 
examine it deliberately and fully. e 
The Bill authorizing a subscription to the stock of the Maysville, 
Washington, Paris and Lexington Turnpike-road Company ap-— 
peared to me to present the looked for occasion. Its local character 
was incontestably established by the fact that the road commenced 
and ended in the same State. It had passed the House and could 
undoubtedly pass the Senate. The road was in Mr. Clay’s own State 
and Mr. Clay was, the General thought—whether rightfully or not 
is now immaterial ;—Pressing the measure and the question it in= 


. 


AUTOBIOGL ‘PHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 5 Al 


_ yolved upon him rather for political effect than for public ends, and 
it was his preference, in accordance with a sound military axiom to 
_ make his enemy’s territory the theatre of the war whenever that was 
_ practicable. 
I brought the subject to the President’s notice during one of our 
daily rides, immediately after the passage of the Bill by the House 
and proposed to send him on our return the brief of which I have 
_ spoken and of which I had before promised him a perusal. I had 
_ myself no hesitation in respect to the course that ought to be pur- 
- sued and spoke of it accordingly. He received my suggestions favor- 
_ ably, appeared sensible of the importance of the proposed step and 
- at parting begged me not to delay sending him the brief—which was 
done as soon as I got to my house. 

Within five days after the passage of the Bill by the House of 
_._ Representatives I received from him the following note. 


(Private. ) 
May 4ruH, 1830. 
My Dear Sr, 
d I have been engaged to day as long as my head and eyes would permit, poring 

over the manuscript you handed me; as far as I have been able to decipher it 
I think it one of the most lucid expositions of the Constitution and historical 
accounts of the departure by Congress from its true principles that I have ever 
_ met with. 

It furnishes clear views upon the constitutional powers of Congress. The 
inability of Congress under the Constitution to apply the funds of the Govern- 
ment to private, not national purposes I never had a doubt of. The Kentucky 
_ road bill involves this very power and I think it right boldly to meet it at the 
threshold. With this object in view I wish to have an interview with you and 
consult upon this subject that the constitutional points may be arranged to bear 

_ upon it with clearness so that the people may fully understand it. 
Can I see you this evening or Thursday morning? 
Your friend 
ANDREW JACKSON 


Mr, VAN BUREN. 


_ Those who take the trouble to refer to the manuscript will be able 
to decide for themselves on the justice of the encomiums bestowed 
upon it by the President. I returned the following answer with 
_ which I have been furnished by Mr. Blair, to whom the General’s 
_ papers were entrusted by his will.* 


° To THE PRESIDENT. 
My pDEaR Sr. f 
I thank you for your favorable opinion of the notes. This matter has for a 
few days past borne heavily on my mind, and brought it to the precise con- 
clusion stated in your note. Under this impression I had actually commenced 
throwing my ideas on paper to be submitted to you when I should get through, 


i These papers are now in the Library of Congress. ° MS. III, p. 160. 
127483°—vort 2—20—— 21 


322 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSJCIATION. 


to see whether it is not possible to defeat the aim of our adversaries in either — 
respect, viz; whether it be to draw you into the approval of a Bill most em- — 
phatically local, and thus endeavor to saddle you with the latitudinarian — 
notions upon which the late administration acted, or to compel you to take a ~ 
stand against internal improvements generally, and thus draw to their aid all 
those who are interested in the ten thousand schemes which events and the 
~ course of the Government for a few past years have engendered. I think I 
see land, and that it will be in our power to serve the Country and at the same 
time counteract the machinations of those who mingle their selfish and am- 
bitious views in the matter. We shall have time enough; the Bill has not yet 
passed the Senate and you have, you know, ten days after that. 
I want to see Mr. McDuffie this evening upon the subject of the outfits and 
may not, therefore, call. I should prefer too to complete first the arrangement 
of my ideas, and then we can take up the subject more satisfactorily. 
Yours truly 
M. VAN BuREeN 
W. May 4th 1830. 


I requested him some days after to obtain from the Secretary of 
the Treasury the financial statement which accompanied the veto- 
Message, and received in reply the following spirited note. 


PRIVATE. 
May 15th, 1830 
Dear Sir, 

Your note is received. I am happy that you have been looking at the pro- 
ceedings of Congress. The appropriations now exceed the available funds in 
the Treasury, and the estimates always exceed the real amount available. I 
have just called upon the Secretary of the Treasury for the amount of the 
estimated available balance on the 1st January 1831. 

The people expected reform retrenchment and economy in the administration © 
of this Government. This was the ery from Maine to Louisiana, and instead of , 
these the great object of Congress, it would seem, is to make mine one of the 
most extravagant administrations since the commencement of the Government. — 
This must not be; The Federal Constitution must be obeyed, State-rights 
preserved, our national debt must be paid, direct taxes and loans avoided and 
the Federal union preserved. These are the objects I have in view, and regard- 
less of all consequences, will carry into effect. 

Yr. friend A. Sh 


Mr. V. B. Sec. of State. 
Let me see you this evening or in the morning. 


Not, one out of twenty of the opposition members believed that 
President Jackson, notwithstanding his proverbial indifference to 
the assumption of responsibility, in respect to measures he believed 
to be right, would venture to veto an act for the internal improve- 
ment of the Country in the then state of public opinion upon the 
subject and after the votes he had so recently given in favor of 
such acts. If they had thought otherwise they would not have 
presented him a Bill so purely local in its character. Apprehensive 
that they would, when his designs became known to them, change 
their course in that respect, and avail themselves of the selfish 


Nii g Hy e Pan 
ogee scrote OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 323 


insettled opinions of a sufficient number of those who 
| er elected ag Jackson men to substitute a Bill for a work more 
al in its pretensions, I was extremely solicitous that nothing 
be said upon the subject until it should be too laté for such 
step, and pressed that point upon the General. It was the only 
"one, di See; that required to be pressed and it was, moreover, that 
which I was persuaded would be the most difficult for him. He 
was entirely unreserved in his public dealings—the People, he 
thought, should know every thing and “give it to Blair” (or Blar 
as he pronounced it)—was almost always his prompt direction when 
_ ever any information was brought to him which affected or might 
_ affect the public interest. Apropos of which I was once told by 
. Major Donelson that, in relation to all affairs in which men were 
_ alone concerned, the General was inveterately opposed to secrecy 
excepting»only when a duel was in the wind, on which occasions he 
_ was a “counsellor—most still, most secret and most grave.” Indeed 
we were often alarmed at the exposed manner in which he kept his 
_ letters and other private papers on his table, and ventured to remon- 
strate with him on the subject, assuring him that for ten dol- 
lars could induce a very clever but sinister looking mulatto in 
_ the President’s service to carry them to him over night; to which 
suggestion the General replied “ If will come here he shall 
have the perusal of them for half the money.” An occasion was soon 
_ presented on which his habit in this respect involved him in some 
embarrassment. 
Col. Johnson, of Kentucky, was induced by Western members, 
_ who had been alarmed by floating rumors, to sound the President 
_ and if he found that there existed danger of such a result to re- 
-monstrate with him, in their names and his own, against a veto. 
é At the moment of his appearance the President and myself were 
_ engaged in an examination of the exposé of the state of the Treas- 
¥ _ury to which I have referred, and alone. After a delay natural to 
a man possessed as the Colonel was of much rea] delicacy of feel- 
ing and having an awkward commission in hand, he said that he 
had called at the instance of many friends to have some conver- 
‘sation with the General upon a very delicate subject and was de- 
terred from entering upon it by an apprehension that he might 
‘give offense. He was kindly told to dismiss such fears, and as- 
‘sured that as the President reposed unqualified confidence in his 
f feadchip he could say nothing on any public matter that would 
‘ive offense. He then spoke of the rumors in circulation, of the 
elings of the General’s Western friends in regard to the sub- 
of them, of his apprehensions of the uses that Mr. Clay would 
make of a veto, and encouraged by the General’s apparent interest, 


1 Richard M. Johnson, 


324 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


‘and warmed by his own, he extended his open hand and exclaimed 
“General! If this hand were an anvil on which the sledge hammer 
‘of the smith was descending and a fly were to light upon it in 
time to receive the blow he would not crush it more effectually — 
‘than you will crush your friends in Kentucky if you veto that — 
Bill!” Gen. Jackson evidently excited by the bold figure and 
energetic manner of Col. Johnson, rose from his seat and ad- 
vanced towards the latter, who also quitted his chair, and the fol- 
lowing questions and answers succeeded very rapidly: “Sir, have 
you looked at the condition of the Treasury—at the amount of 
money that it contains—at the appropriations already made by 
Congress—at the amount of other unavoidable claims upon it?”— 
“No! General, I have not! But there has always been money 
enough to satisfy appropriations and I do not doubt there will 
be now!”—* Well, I have, and this is the result,” (repeating the 
substance of the Treasury exhibit,) “and you see there is no money 
to be expended as my friends desire. Now, I stand committed be- 
fore the Country to pay off the National Debt, at the earliest prac- 
ticable moment; this pledge I am determined to redeem, and I 
cannot do this if I consent to encrease it without necessity. Are 
you willing—are my friends willing to lay taxes to pay for internal 
improvements?—for be assured I will not borrow a cent except in 
eases of absolute necessity !”— No!” replied the Colonel, “that 
would be worse than a veto/” 
These emphatic declarations delivered with unusual earnestness 
and in that peculiarly impressive manner for which he was remark- 
able when excited quite overcrowed the Colonel who picked up the 
green bag which he usually carried during the °session and mani- 
fested a disposition to retreat. As he was about to leave I remarked 
to him that he had evidently made up his mind that the General 
had determined to veto the Bill at all events, but that when he re- 
flected how much of the President’s earnestness was occasioned by 
his own strong speech and how natural it was for a man to become 
excited when he has two sets of friends, in whom he has equal confi- 
dence, urging him in different directions, he would be less confident 
in his conclusion. Reminded by this observation that he had suf- 
fered the guard which he had imposed on himself to be broken down 
by the Colonel’s sledge-hammer, the General told him that he was 
giving the matter a thorough investigation and that their friends 
might be assured that he would not make up his mind without 
loking at every side of it,—that he was obliged to him for what 
he had said and wished all his friends to speak to him as plainly, 
&e. &c. The Colonel with his accustomed urbanity deported himself 


° MS. III, p. 165. 


hg at hfe ‘ 


ip OF rare TR 


| "i mmrewys Me ie eget Sea 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 825 


as if reassured and appeared to consider the case not so desperate 


as he had at first imagined, but his manner was assumed for the 


purpose of quieting my apprehensions which he perceived and under- 


stood. When he returned to the House he replied to the eager 


enquiries of his Western friends that the General had thanked him 


and assured him that he would thoroughly examine the subject, but 
_his private opinion decidedly was that nothing less than a voice from 


Heaven would prevert the old man from vetoing the Bill, and he 


_ doubted whether that would! 


Still so strong was the impression derived from Gen. Jackson’s 
habit of never concealing his views upon a subject on which his 


_ mind was made up, that the incredulity of the members was but 


slightly removed by the Colonel’s report: what he would do in the 
matter remained an open question to the last. The consequence was 
that the importunities of his friends were increased. but as the 
detailed account of Col. Johnson’s embassy discouraged direct re- 
_monstrances with the President they were addressed to me, and 
in my efforts to keep both sides quiet by statements of the difficulties 
with which the subject was environed by reason of the conflicting 
struggles of the friends of the Administration, I exposed my own 
course to some suspicion or affected suspicion in the end. The Gen- 
eral told me, on my return from England, that one of the charges 
brought against me by Mr. Calhoun’s friends, to justify the rejec- 
tion of my nomination as Minister, was that I had been opposed 
to the veto and had tried to prevent him from interposing it. He 
named, in particular, Mr. Carson,t of North Carolina, a peppery 
young man, ardently attached to Mr. Calhoun and, for no other 
reason that I knew of, very hostile to me, as one who had circulated 
that report, and said that to silence him, he one day, took up a 
pamphlet-copy of the veto-Message and holding it before him asked 
him to look at it closely and see whether he could not discover my 


_ likeness on every page. 


The impression among the General’s Western friends, that he 
would destroy his popularity by a veto, was universal and prevailed 
also extensively among those from the North. The Pennsylvania 
members generally were rampant in their opposition and most of 
them voted for the Bill after the veto was interposed. Being with 
him to a very late hour the night before the Message was sent up, he 
asked me to take an early breakfast with him, as Congress was on 
the point of breaking up, and would therefore meet at an early hour. 
In the morning I found our friends, Grundy, Barry, Eaton? and 
Lewis* at the table, wearing countenances to the last degree despond- 


1Samuel P. Carson. 
2 Felix Grundy, William T. Barry, and John H. Eaton. 
’ William B. Lewis. 


326 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


‘ing, occasioned, as I well knew, by their convictions of the injurious - 
effects that must result from the step about to be taken. On going 
up stairs to his office, he leaning on my arm on account of his ex- — 
treme physical weakness, I observed that our friends were frightened. — 
“Yes,” he replied‘ but don’t mind that! The thing is here” 
(placing his hand on the breast-pocket of his coat)” and shall be — 
sent up as soon as Congress convenes.” 

It was sent up that morning and a scene ensued that baffled all our 
calculations. If there was any sentiment among our opponents which 
we knew to be universal, before the reading of the veto-Message, it 
was that it would prove the political death warrant of the Adminis- 
tration and we were prepared to hear denunciations against the vio- 
lence and destructive effects of the measure and the reckless insult 
offered to the House by the President in sending it. But no such 
clamor arose, and the first and principal objection that was made — 
against the Message, when the reading was finished, and which was 
persevered in to the end, was that it was “an electioneering docu-- 
ment” sent to Congress for political effect !—and that the “hand of 
the magician” was visible in every line of it! 

It was indeed received with unbounded satisfaction by the great — 
body of the disinterested and genuine friends of the Administration 
throughout the Country. At a public dinner given by the republi-. 
cans of Norfolk to John Randolph on the occasion of his departure 
for Russia, the following toast was drunk standing and with cheers — 
three times three:—‘ The rejection of the Maysville Road Bill it 
falls upon the ears like the music of other days.” Some, whose 
friendship for the Administration, if not completely alienated, had — 
certainly been greatly abated, felt obliged to praise it. Col. Hayne, 
of South Carolina, at the great Charleston dinner given to inaugu- 
rate nullification, and thro’ its means to put that Administration to 
the severest trial that any had ever been exposed to in our Country — 
spoke of the veto as “the most auspicious event which had taken — 
place in the history of the Country for years past.” I refer but to — 
one other of those acceptable exhibitions of public feeling which per- 
vaded the Union, tho’ less imposing in form not less gratifying. 
Col. Ramsay,t one of the Representatives from Pennsylvania, an 
excitable -but honest man and true patriot, irritated almost beyond 
endurance by the veto, followed us from the Capitol to the White 
House, after the close of the session, and, presuming on the strength ~ 
of his friendship for the General, fairly upbraided him for his 
course. The latter bore his reproaches, for such they really were 
altho’ intended only as a remonstrance which he thought allowable 
in a devoted friend, with a degree of mildness that excited my ad- 
miration, begging the dissatisfied representative to say no more upon 


1 Robert Ramsay. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 327 


‘the subject until he had seen his constituents and venturing to 
prophesy that he would find them pleased with the veto. "The 
worthy Pennsylvanian received the intimation as an additional in- 
jury and parted from us in an exceedingly had humor. A short 
time afterwards, as I was one day approaching the President he 
held up to me in an exultanf manner, a paper which proved to be 
a letter from our good friend Ramsay in which he announced the 
‘confirmation of the General’s prediction and acknowledged that, in 
that case at least, the latter had known his constituents better than 
he himself had known them. 
_ And yet this measure. was but the entering wedge to the course 
of action by which that powerful combination known as the In- 
“ternal Improvement party was broken asunder and finally an- 
nihilated. I have already given an extract from the President’s 
Message descriptive of its ramifications and extent at the period of 
the veto. The power which a combined influence of that descrip- 
_ tion, addressing itself to the strongest passion of man’s nature and 
_ wielded by a triumvirate of active and able young statesmen as a 
means through which to achieve for themselves the glittering prize 
_ of the Presidency, operating in conjunction with minor classes of 
policians, looking in the same general direction and backed by a 
little army of cunning contractors, is capable of exerting in com- 
“munities so excitable as our own, can-_easily be imagined. The 
_ danger in offending and the difficulty of resisting such an influence 
were equally apparent. The utmost prudence was required in re- 
spect to the ground that should be occupied by the President in the 
- first step that he was to take in the prosecution of the great reform 
_ that he had in view. His own past course increased the necessity 
of great circumspection at the start. The votes he had given for 
_ the survey-bill and for the appropriation in aid of the Chesapeake 
e and Delaware Canal, with his letter to the Governor of Indiana, 
written during the canvass and referring to those votes as exponents 
of his opinions were fresh in the recollections of the People. His 
“name was, in very deed, a tower of strength,° but prudence as well 
as sound principle dictated that their partiality should not be put 
to an unreasonable test by the ground he now took, on an occasion 
of intense interest, in a document which, as we all well knew, would 
have to pass through the severest scrutiny. 
In view of this state of things the veto-Message assumed the 
following positions :— 
ist. The construction of Internal Improvements under the author- 
ity of the Federal Government was not authorized by the Consti- 
tution. 


° MS. III, p. 170. 


3828 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


2nd. Altho’ the true view of the Constitution in regard to the 
power of appropriation was probably that taken in Madison’s Re- 
port concerning the alien and sedition laws, by which it was con- 
fined to cases where the particular measure which the appropriation 
was designed to promote was within the enumerated authorities — 
vested in Congress, yet every Administration of the Government 
had, in respect to appropriations of money only adopted in practice 
(several cases of which were mentioned) a more enlarged construc- 
tion of the power. This course, it was supposed, had been so long 
and so extensively persisted in as to render it difficult, if not im- 
practicable, to bring the operations of the Government back to the 
construction first referred to. The Message nowhere admitted that 
the more enlarged construction which had obtained so strong a 
foothold, was a true exposition of the Constitution, and it conceded 
that its restriction against abuse, viz., that the works which might 
be thus aided should be “of a general, not local—National, not 
State” character, a disregard of which distinction would of neces- 
sity lead to the subversion of the Federal System, was oe arbi- 
trary In its nature and inefficient. 

3d. Although he might not feel it to be his duty to interpose the 
Executive veto against the passage of Bills appropriating maqney 
for the construction of such works as were authorized by the States, 
and were National in ,their character the President did not wish 
to be understood as assenting to the expediency of embarking the 
General Government in a system of that kind at this time; but he 
could never give his approval to a measure having the character of 
that under consideration, not being able to regard it in any other 
light than as a measure of a purely local character; or if it could 
be considered National no further distinction between the appro- 
priate duties of the General and State Governments need ‘be at- 
tempted, for there could be no local interest that might not, under 
such a construction, be denominated, with equal propriety, Na- 
tional. 

His veto was placed on that specific ground, and the rest of the 
Message was principally taken up in discussing the propriety and 
expediency of deferring all other action upon the subject, even of — 
appropriations for National works until the Public Debt should be 
paid and amendments of the Constitution adopted by which such 
appropriation could be protected against the abuses to which it 
were exposed. 

These positions, fairly interpreted, were not inconsistent with the 
votes which Gen. Jackson had given in the capacity of Senator dur- 

ing the Canvass of 1823-4. The Survey-Bill was in terms limited 
to roads and canals which the President should deem of Wational 
importance. Mr. Calhoun’s Bonus Bill proposed to set aside a fund — 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 329 


for the construction of roads and canals, and still both he and Mr. 
Clay contended that the constitutional question did not arise before 
the specific bill was presented for the action of Congress. With 
much more propriety could that be said of the Survey Bill. The 
appropriation in aid of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal was 
sustained on the ground of its being a work of national importance 
and the Maysville veto did not expressly deny the constitutionality 
of such appropriations. Whether that was one of such a character 
or not was a question in respect to which, in the absence of consti- 
: tutional regulation, Gen. Jackson was obliged to exercise his discre- 
_ tion. He did so in that case and voted for the Bill—he did the same 
_ thing in the case of the Maysville Road and vetoed it. The pro- 
_ piety of the veto was therefore reduced to the single question as to _ 
the character of the road—was it national or local?—an issue on * 
which his opponents could not sustain themselves for a moment. 
_ He was thus enabled to go to the Country with his views in favor 
_ of suspending action even upon works of national importance until 
the public debt was paid and constitutional amendments obtained, 
to guard against otherwise unavoidable abuses, unembarrassed by 
side issues of any description other than that to which I have last 
referred and upon which his position was absolutely impregnable. 
It was the consciousness of the soundness of the positions taken 
in the veto-Message that produced the raving debates in the House 
_ when it was first presented to that body, and it was doubtless a 
similar consciousness that forced Mr. Clay in a speech on the Mes- 
sage delivered at Cincinnati, shortly after its appearance, so far to 
forget the proprieties of his position to compare the Message to 
the paper sent’ by George III, during his insanity, which, tho’ it 
had his name attached to it, could not be said to have spoken his 
sentiments, and to exclaim that he could not read it without hav- 
ing the name of Talleyrand! Tallyrand! Talleyrand! continually 
recurring to his mind. He could hardly have been aware of the 
weight of testimony he bore in the latter exclamation in favor of 
_the Message on the score of talent and power. The reader will 
_ judge for himself as to the degree of success with which the views 
sketched in my note to the President of the 4th of May, before sare 
_were carried out. 
A great step had been taken towards removing from Congress an 
incubus which had for years weighed upon it in the shape of un- 
_ availing effort to establish a useful system of internal improvement 
under its auspices and by its authority. Whilst the time of that 
body was wasted in unfruitful debates and its capacity for use- 
fulness in the channels designed for its action by the Constitution 
“Impaired, every thinking and fair minded man saw that to es- 
tablish such a system previous amendments to the Constitution were 


a 
& 


330 ALMIERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


- 


absolutely indispensable. A step in adyance had been takin but, 
we knew very well that more was to be done and that other posi- 
tions must be assumed to make that step available, and we devoted 
ourselves without delay to a consideration of their character. Neither 
of us laboring, it is but truth to say it, under vain conceits of 
our self-sufficiency, I with the approbation of the President, sought 
the best counsel that the Country afforded by opening a corre- 
spondence on the subject with Mr. Madison. In his recent weto- 
Message, the President had given a construction to Mr. Madison’s 
veto of Mr. Calhoun’s Bonus Bill, of which we thought it fairly ~ 
suspectible altho’ not with absolute certainty of our position. I _ 
am free to admit that a floating impression existed in my mind 
throughout that Mr. Madison might, altho’ I could not well see 
how, disavow that construction. I sincerely wished for such a 
result and the wish was doubtless father to the thought. I there-— 
fore sent him an early copy of the General’s veto-Message, in a 
way best calculated to elicit an expression of his views upon the 
point without asking them. His first note shews the result and 
as the residue of the correspondence explains the reasons for its 
continuance I will make no apology for-imserting ail the letters” 
here. What such a man as Mr. Madison has said upon a subject of so” 
much importance cannot be too carefully preserved and there is 
clearly no reason for a continuance of the confidence in which hi is 
letters were written and which has hitherto been observed. J 


From Mr. Maptson.* 


J. Madison has duly received the copy of the President’s Message forwarded - 
by Mr. Van Buren. In returning his thanks for this polite attention, he ‘e 
grets the necessity of observing that the Message has not rightly conceived 
the intention of J. M. in his Veto in 1817 on the Bill relating to ar 
Improvements. It was an object of the Veto to deny to Congress as well a 
the appropriating power, as the executing and jurisdictional branches of it, 
and it is believed that this was the general understanding at the time, and 
has continued to be so, according to the references occasionally made to i 
document. Whether the language employed duly conveyed the meaning o 
which J. M. retains the consciousness is a question on which he i, no t 
presume ° to judge for others. 

Relying on the candor to which these remarks are addressed he Landen to. 
Mr. Van Buren renewed assurances of his high esteem and good wistes 

Montpelier, June 3, 1830. 

To Mr. Manptson. 


WaAsHiIneTON June 9th, 1830 

DEarR Sr, > 
I have shewn your note of the 3rd inst. to the President who requests me to 
express his regret that he has misconceived your intentions in regard to your 
veto on the Bill for Internal Improvements in 1817. As far as opportuni i eS 


1 Madison’s draft is in the Madison Papers in the Library of Congress. 
° MS. III, p. 175. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 831 


place it in his power to correct the error in informal conversation he will 
not fail to do so, and should an occasion occur on which a more formal cor- 
_ rection would be pertinent it will give him pleasure to make it, if advised 
that that course would be preferred by you. 

- Will you excuse me for troubling you again upon this interesting and per- 
_ plexing subject? I am deeply sensible of the necessity of repose to one of 
your advanced age and of the claims to its enjoyment which are founded 
“upon your past usefulness, but deriving confidence from your ready ac- 
quiescence in my wishes on a former occasion I venture to intrude once 
more upon your retirement. You have had some experience of the injurious 
tendency of legislation upon this subject by Congress, but no one can have 
‘an idea of the demoralizing effect which for years past it has had upon 
_ their proceedings without being on the spot and forming a part of the Gov- 
ernment. The President is deeply impressed with the importance of arrest- 
- ing its further progress and very willing to incur whatever responsibility he 
ean properly take upon himself to promote that object. You have seen the 
_ ground he has taken and can appreciate fully the position he occupies. It is 
- unnecessary for me to say to you that the matter cannot rest here but that 
‘ it will be necessary for him to go farther at the next session of Congress. 

_ Among the points which will then come up for consideration will be the 
_ following: ist, the establishment of some rule which shall give the greatest prac- 
7 ticable precision to the power of appropriating money for objects of general 
concern; 2d, a rule for the government of grants for light houses and the im- 
_ provement of harbors and rivers which will avoid the objects which it is de- 
sirable to exclude from the present action of Government and at the same 
; ; time to do what is imperiously required by a due regard to the general com- 
- merce of the Country; 3d, the expediency of refusing all appropriations for 
internal improvements, (other than those of the character last referred to if 
they may be so called,) until the national debt is paid, as well on account of 
_ the sufficiency of that motive, as to give time for the adoption of some con- 

_ Stitutional or other arrangement by which the whole subject may be placed on 
_ better grounds,—an arrangement which will never be seriously attempted as 
_ long as scattering appropriations are made and the scramble for them thereby 

encouraged; 4th, the strong objections which exist against subscriptions to the 

stock of private companies by the United States. 
There is no man more willing to hear with patience and to weigh with candor 
the suggestions of those in whom he has confidence than the President. The 
relation in which I stand to him will give him the right to be furnished with 

_ my views upon these matters and I need not say how much I would be bene- 
fitted in forming and fortified in sustaining them by your friendly advice. I 
__ask it in confidence and will receive whatever your leisure and inclination may 
_ induce you to say upon the subject under the same obligation. 

_ Wishing to be kindly remembered to Mrs. Madison, I am dear Sir, 
= Very truly yours,? 


Mapison TO VAN BUREN.” 
\ MonTpetxier, July 5, 1830. 
_ Dear Srz.—Your letter of June 9th came duly to hand. On the subject of 
Hf the discrepancy between the construction put by the message of the President 
on the yeto of 1817, and the intention of its author, the President will of 
course consult his own view of the case. For myself, I am aware that the 


—1Van Buren’s draft is in the Van Buren Papers, the letter sent is in the Madison 


3 Copies are in both the Madison and Van Buren Papers. 


332 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


document must speak for itself, and that that intention can not be substituted — 
for the established rules of interpretation. 
The several points on which you desire my ideas are necessarily vague, and — 
the observations on them can not well be otherwise. They are suggested by 
a respect for your request, rather than by a hope that they can assist the 
object of it. 
“Point 1. The establishment of some rule which shall give the greatest prac- 
ticable precision to the power of appropriating money to objects of general — 
concern.” 
The rule must refer, it is presumed, either to the objects of appropriation, — 
or to the apportionment of the money. : 
A specification of the objects of general concern in terms as definite as may 
ne, seems to be the rule most applicable; thus Roads simply, if for all the 
uses of Roads; or Roads, post and military, if limited to those uses; or post — 
roads only, if so limited: thus, Canals, either generally, or for specified uses: ~ 
so again Education, as limited to a university, or extended to seminaries of 
other denominations. | 
As to the apportionment of the money, no rule can exclude Legislative dis- 
cretion but that of distribution among the States according to their presumed 
contributions; that is, to their ratio of Representation in Congress. The ad-— 
vantages of this rule are its certainty, and its apparent equity. ‘The objec- 
tions to it may be that, on one hand, it would increase the comparative agency 
of the Federal Government, and, on the other that the money might not be 
expended on objects of general concern; the interests of particular States not 
happening to coincide with the general interest in relation to improvements 
within such States. 
“2. A rule for the Government of Grants for Light-houses, and the improve- 
ment of Harbours and Rivers, which will avoid the objects which it is desirable 
to exclude from the present action of the Government; and at the same time — 
do what is imperiously required by a regard to the general commerce of the 
Country.” é 
National grants in these cases seem to admit no possible rule of discrimina- 
tion, but as the objects may be of a national or local character. The difficulty — 
lies in all cases where the degree and not the nature of the case, is to govern. 
In the extremes, the judgment is easily formed; as between removing obstruc- 
tions in the Mississippi, the highway of commerce for half the nation, and a 
like operation, giving but little extension to the navigable use of a river, itself 
of confined use. In the intermediate cases, legislative discretion, and, conse- 
quently, legislative errors and partialities are unavoidable. Some controul is 
attainable in doubtful cases, from preliminary investigations and reports by 
disinterested and responsible agents. 
In defraying the expense of internal improvements, strict justice would re- 
quire that a part only and not the whole should be borne by the nation. Take 
for examples the Harbours of New York and New Orleans. However important 
in a commercial view they may be to the other portions of the Union, the States” 
to which they belong must derive a peculiar as well as a common advantage 
from improvements made in them, and could afford therefore to combine with 
grants from the common treasury, proportional contributions from their own : 
On this principle it is that the practice has prevailed in the States (as it has 
done with Congress) of dividing the expense of certain improvements, between 
the funds of the State, and the contribution of those locally interested in them. 
Extravagant and disproportionate expenditures on Harbours, Light-houses 
and other arrangements on the Seaboard ought certainly to be controuled as 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 333 
much as possible. But it seems not to be sufficiently recollected, that in rela- 
tion to our foreign commerce, the burden and benefit of accommodating and 

_ protecting it necessarily go together, and must do so as long and as far as the 
public revenue continues to be drawn thro’ the Customhouse. Whatever gives 
facility and security to navigation, cheapens imports; and all who consume 
them wherever residing are alike interested in what has that effect. If they 
consume they ought as they now-do to pay. If they do not consume, they do 
not pay. The consumer in the most inland State derives the same advantage 

_ from the necessary and prudent expenditures for the security of our foreign 
navigation, as the consumer in a maritime State. Our local expenditures have 
i not of themselves a correspondent operation. 

“2 The expediency of refusing all appropriations for internal improvements 


7 

_ (other than those of the character last referred to, if they can be so called) 

: until the national debt is paid; as well on account of the sufficiency of that 

motive, as to give time for the adoption of some constitutional or other arrange- 

ment by which the whole subject may be placed on better grounds; an arrange- 
ment which will never be seriously attempted as long as scattering appropria- 
tions are made, and the scramble for them thereby encourag 

The expediency of refusing appropriations, with a view to the previous dis- 
charge of the public debt, involves considerations which can be best weighed 
and compared at the focus of lights on the subject. A distant view like mine 
ean only suggest the remark, too vague to be of value, that a material delay 
ought not to be incurred for objects not both important and urgent; nor such 
ebjects to be neglected in order to avoid an immaterial delay. This is, indeed, 
but the amount of the exception glanced at in your parenthesis. 

The mortifying scenes connected with a surplus revenue are the natural off- 
spring of a surplus; and cannot perhaps be entirely prevented by any plan of 
appropriation which allows a scope to Legislative discretion. The evil will 
have a powerful controul in the pervading dislike to taxes even the most indi- 
rect. The taxes lately repealed are an index of it. Were the whole revenue 
expended on internal improvements drawn from direct taxation, there would be 
danger of too much parsimony rather than too much profusion at the Treasury. 

“A The strong objections which exist against subscriptions to the stock of 
private companies by the United States.” 

The objections are doubtless in many respects strong. Yet cases might 
present themselves which might not be favored by the State, whilst the con- 
curring agency of an Undertaking Company would be desirable in a national 
view. There was a time it is said when the State of Delaware, influenced by 
the profits of a Portage between the Delaware and Chesapeake, was unfriendly 
to the Canal, now forming so important a link of internal communication be- 
tween the North and the South. Undertakings by private companies carry with 
2 them a presumptive evidence of utility, and the private stakes in them, some 
security for economy in the execution, the want of which is the bane of public 

undertakings. Still the importunities of private companies cannot be listened 
be to with more caution than prudence requires. 

____ IT haye, as you know, never considered the powers claimed for Congress over 
re roads and canals, as within the grants of the Constitution. But such improve- 
- ments being justly ranked among the greatest advantages and best evidences of 
_ good government; and having, moreover, with us, the peculiar recommendation 
of binding the several parts of the Union more firmly together, I have always 

‘thought the power ought to be possessed by the common Government; which 

_ commands the least unpopular and most productive sources of revenue, and 

can alone select improvements with an eye to the national good. The States 


a! 


334 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


are restricted in their pecuniary resources; and Roads and Canals mos 
portant in a national view might not be important to the State or States 
sessing the domain and the soil; or might even be deemed disadvantageous ; 
on the most favourable supposition might require a concert of means and reg u- 
lations among several States not easily effected, nor unlikely to be altogether 
omitted. 
These considerations have pleaded with me in favour of the policy of vestta g 
in Congress an authority over internal improvements. I am sensible at the 
same time of the magnitude of the trust, as well as of the difficulty of executin e 
it properly and the greater difficulty of executing it satisfactorily. a 
On a supposition of a due establishment of the power in Congress, one of 
the modes of using it might be, to apportion a reasonable share of the dis- 
posable revenue of the United States among the States to be applied by them 
to cases of State concern; with a reserved discretion in Congress to effectuate 
improvements of general concern which the States might not be able or not 
disposed to provide for. 
If Congress do not mean to throw away the rich fund inherited in the publi 
lands, would not the sales of them, after their liberation from the original 
pledge, be aptly appropriated to objects of internal improvements; and why 
not also, with a supply of the competent authority, to the removal to better 
situations of the free black as well as red population, objects confessedly of 
national importance and desirable to all parties? But I am traveling out of the 
subject before me. 7 
The date of your letter reminds me of the delay of the answer. The dela 
has been occasioned by interruptions of my health; and the answer such as it is, 
is offered in the same confidence in which it was asked. 
With great esteem & cordial salutations. 


JAMES MADISON. 
Mr. VAN BUREN. ; 
From Mr. Mapison. 


MontTrPetiier, Oct. 9, 1830. 

DEAR Siz : 

I rec’ your letter of July 30th * in due time but have taken advantage of 
permitted delay in answering it. Altho’ I have again turned in my thought 
the subjects of your former letter “on which any further remarks from me 
would be acceptable”, I do not find that I can add anything material to what 
is said either in my letter of July 5th or in preceding ones. The particular 
eases of local improvements or establishments having immediate relation to 
external commerce and navigation will continue to produce questions of 4 fi- 
culty, either constitutional, or as to utility or impartiality, which can only be de- 
cided according to their respective merits. No general rule, founded on pr 
cise definitions, is perhaps possible; none certainly that relates to such 
as those of Light Houses, which must depend on the evidence before the co 
petent authority. In procuring that evidence it will, of course be incumbe 
on that authority to employ the means and precautions most appropriate. _ 

With regard to the Veto of 1817 I wish it to be understood that I have 
particular solicitude; nor can the President be under any obligation to noti 
the subject, if his construction of the language of the Document be unchan 
My notice of it, when acknowledging the receipt of the Message you poli 
enclosed to me, was necessary to guard my consistency against an infere 
from my silence. 


alI have not kept a copy, it appears, of my letter of July 30. I must have 
referred to the subject of the President’s misconstruction of the veto of 1817. 


_ AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 335 _ 


a regret that I cannot make you a more important communication, I 
the assurances of my great esteem and my cordial salutations. 

= JaMEs MADISON. 
Van BUREN. 

ving carefully observed the course of public opinion and being 
ied that it had settled down decidedly in favor of the policy 
stponing all appropriations for works of internal improvement, 
for such as might fairly be deemed of a national character 
the public debt was paid, as he had suggested in his veto- 
ye, the President was prepared to take his own position upon 
point in his second annual Message in December of the same 
2 Justice cannot be done to him without accompanying this 
of those important transactions with explanations which might, 
- other circumstances be considered unnecessary. He first took 
of the vote he had given, whilst Senator, in favor of the Chesa- 
and Delaware Canal of which he spoke as follows: 


king of direct appropriations I mean not to include a practice which 
ned to some extent, and to which I have, in one instance, in a different 
given my assent—that of subscribing to the stock of private associa- 
s. Positive experience, and a more thorough consideration of the subject, 
e convinced me of the impropriety as well as inexpediency of such invest- 
All improvements effected by the funds of the nation for general use 
le be open to the enjoyment of all our fellow citizens, exempt from the 
ent of tolls, or any° imposition of that character: The practice of thus 
ing the concerns of the Government with those of the States or of indi- 
S is inconsistent with the object of its institution, and highly impolitic. 
ful operation of the federal system can only be preserved by confin- 
e few and simple but yet important objects for which it was designed. 
acl ‘The power which the General Government would acquire within the 
States by becoming the principal stockholder in corporations, con- 
i= every canal and each sixty or hundred miles of every important road, 
a _2 yaaa yote in all their elections, is almost inconceivable 
, dangerous to the liberties of the neople. 


thus acknowledged with characteristic frankness the 
ch his opinion had undergone on the point referred to, he 
the same freedom of the general subject, and said, among 
Ings: 
‘objections to the bills authorizing subscriptions to the Maysville and 
Road Companies, I expressed my views fully in regard to the power 
ess to construct roads and canals within a State, or to appropriate 
c improvements of a local character. I, at the same time, intimated my 
that the right to make appropriations for such as were of a national 
racter had been so generally acted upon and so long acquiesced in by the 
and State Governments, and the constituents of each. as to justify 
se on the ground of continued and uninterrupted usage; but that it 
rtheless, highly expedient that appropriations, even of that character, 
with the exception made at the time, be deferred until the national 


adison’s draft is in the Madison Papers. 21830. ° MS. III, p. 180. 


336 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. ‘ i 
; 7.’ 

debt is paid, and that, in the meanwhile, some general rule for the action of 

the Government in that respect ought to be established. ; 

These suggestions were not necessary to the decision of the question then 
before me; and were, I readily admit, intended to awake the attention and | 
draw forth the opinions and observations of our constituents, upon a subject — 
of the highest importance to their interests, and one destined to exert a power- 
ful influence upon the future operations of our political system. I know of 
no tribunal to which a public man in this Country, in a ease of doubt and — 
difficulty, can appeal with greater advantage or more propriety than the judg- 
ment of the people; and although I must necessarily, in the discharge of my 
official duties, be governed by the dictates of my own judgment, I have no de- 
sire to conceal my anxious wish to conform, as far as I can, to the views of 
those for whom I act. 

All irregular expressions of public opinion are of necessity attended with 
some doubt as to their accuracy; but, making full allowance on that account, 
I can not, I think, deceive myself in believing that the acts referred to, as 
well as the suggestions which I allowed myself to make, in relation to their 
bearing upon the future operations of the Government, have been approved 
by the great body of the people. That those whose immediate pecuniary in- 
terests are to be affected by proposed expenditures should shrink from the ap- 
plication of a rule which prefers their more general and remote interests fo 
those which are personal and immediate, is to be expected. But even such | 
objections must, from the nature of our population, be but temporary in their 
duration; and if it were otherwise our course should be the same; for the 
time is yet, I hope, far distant when those intrusted with power to be exercised 
for the good of the whole will consider it either honest or wise, to purchase 
local favors at the sacrifice of principle and general good. | 

So understanding public sentiment and thoroughly satisfied that the best in- 
terests of our common Country imperiously require that the course which | 
I have recommended in this regard should be adopted, I have, upon the mos 
mature consideration, determined to pursue it. 

It is due to candor as well as to my own feelings that I should express the 
reluctance and anxiety which I must at all times experience in exercising the 
undoubted right of the Executive to withhold his assent from bills on othe: 
grounds than their constitutionality. That this right should not be exercise() | 
on slight occasions, all will admit. It is only in matters of deep interest, when 
the principle involved may be justly regarded as next in importance to infrac) 
tions of the Constitution itself, that such a step can be expected to meet witli 
the approbation of the people. Such an occasion do I conscientiously believe the 
present to be. In the discharge of this delicate and highly responsible duty | 
am sustained by the reflection that the exercise of this power has been deemed 
consistent with the obligations of official duty by several of my predecessors 
and by the persuasion too, that whatever liberal institutions may have to fea! ' 
from the encroachments of Executive power, which has been every where thet 
cause of so much strife and bloody contention, but little danger is to be app 6 
hended from a precedent by which that authority denies to itself the exercise ol 
powers that bring in their train influence and patronage of great extent; an¢ 
thus excludes the operation of personal interests, every where the bane @ 
official trust. I derive, too, no small degree of satisfaction from the reflection 
that if I have mistaken the interests and wishes of the people, the Constitutio 
affords the means of soon redressing the error, by selecting for the place th ei 
favor has bestowed upon me a citizen whose opinions may accord with thé 
own. I trust, in the mean time, the interests of the nation will be saved fro 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 337 


ejudice, by a rigid application of that portion of the public funds which might 
otherwise be applied to different objects to that highest of all our obligations, 
the Payment of the public debt, and an opportunity be afforded for the adop- 
tion of some better rule, for the operations of the Government in this matter, 
than any which has hitherto been acted upon. 


_ After his re-election, and in his sixth annual Message he repeated 
the views he here expressed and took a final leave of the subject in 


the following emphatic terms: 


_ So far, at least as it regards this branch of the subject, my best hopes 
_ have been realized. Nearly four years have elapsed, and several sessions of 
Congress have intervened, and no attempt, within my recollection has been 
made to induce Congress to exercise this power. The application for the con- 
Struction of roads and canals, which were formerly multiplied upon your 
files, are no longer presented; and we have good reason to infer that the cur- 
‘ rent of public sentiment has become so decided against the pretension as effec- 
tually to discourage its reassertion. So thinking, I derive the greatest satis- 
faction from the conviction that thus much at least has been secured upon this 
important and embarrassing subject. 
‘fi Frem attempts to appropriate the national funds to objects which are con- 
fessedly of a local character we cannot, I trust, have any thing further to 
apprehend. My views in regard to the expediency of making appropriations 
for works which are claimed to be of a national character, and prosecuted under 
State authority, assuming that Congress have the right to do so, were stated 
ii: my annual message to Congress in 1830, and also in that containing my ob- 
ections to the Maysville Road bill. 
_ So thoroughly convinced am I that no such appropriations ought to be 
_tiade by Congress, until a suitable constitutional provision is made upon 
the subject, and so essential do I regard the point to the highest interests of 
our Country, that I could not consider myself as discharging my duty to my 
constituents in giving the Executive sanction to any bill containing such an 
propriation. If the people of the United States desire that the public Treasury 
_ Shall be resorted to for the means to prosecute such works, they will concur 
‘in an amendment to the Constitution, prescribing a rule by which the-national 
| character of the works is to be tested, and by which the greatest practicable 
| equality of benefits may be secured to each member of the eonfederacy. ‘The 
‘i effects of such a regulation would be most salutary in preventing unprofitable 
_ expenditures, in securing our legislation from the pernicious consequences of a 
ramble for the favors of Government, and in repressing the spirit of 
fiscontent which must inevitably arise from an unequal distribution of 
‘treasures which belong alike to all. 


From this declaration he excepted appropriations for the im- 
srovement of our harbors and for the removal of partial and tem- 
9orary obstructions in our navigable rivers, for the facility and 
ecurity of our foreign commerce, as standing upon different grounds. 
For seven years of General Jackson’s administration was the gen- 
ral subject thus banished from the halls of Congress and by my 
lection as his successor that virtual interdict (if it may be so termed) 
vas extended to eleven years. It was in consequence of the steps 
which I have spoken that the project of a system of Internal 
127483°—vor 2—20-—_22 


; 
: 


v) 


338 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


Improvements by the Federal Government was—there is every ° 
°reason to believe—forever withdrawn from the action of that Gov- 
ernment. Not that any such consequence can be attributed to the 
opinion or action of any man who may for a season be placed at 
its head, for no one conversant with human nature or with the course 
of political events will ever expect with confidence such a result 
from such causes. The opinion I have expressed is founded on 
more potent considerations. Every effort in the direction referred 
to was certainly suspended for eleven years and other fields of exer- 
tion in behalf of such works were soon found and occupied. To 
a people as impulsive as ours eleven years of denial and delay are : 
almost equivalent to an eternal veto, and those who maintained 
that the passion for Internal Tproveme so rampant at the seat 
of the Federal Government at the commencement of the Jackson 
administration, would seek other and constitutional directions for 
its gratification, if that could be perseveringly denied to it there 
for even a shorter period, stand justified by the event. All of the 
works of that character which it was ever hoped might prove safe 
and useful to the Country, have been made by or under the au- 
thority of the State Governments. All motive for enlisting the 
interference of the National Government for generations to come, 
has thus been superseded. In the cases of wild and unprofitable or 
speculative projects, losses, to the extent of many millions, which 
the Treasury would have ‘sustained if these works had bean con- 
structed under Federal authority, have fallen with a weight dimin- 
ished by the vigilance inspired by private interest and by State 
supervision, upon the shoulders of those who expected to make money 
by them, instead of emptying the national coffers, to be recruited 
by taxes collected from the mass of the people who would wey de- 
rived no exclusive advantages from their success. 

We have had two administrations of the Federal Government whose 
politics were of the Governmental-improvement stamp, but none 
of the old projects have been brought forward—resolutions in favour 
of Internal Improvements have been dropped from the partisan plat- 
forms of the party that suported those administrations. The theo 
and the practice—except as to cases not involved in the general ques- 
tion—are both exploded as regards the action of the Federal Gov- 
ernment and the signal advantages which the Country has reapec 
from this result so es, as they have not been now refered to will 
elsewhere noticed. 


° MS, III, p. 185. 


CHAPTER XXVI. 


I have once or twice incidentally mentioned, an affair, under the 
name of the Eaton-imbroglio, which, tho’ in no proper sense politi- 
cal, exerted perhaps a more injurious influence upon the management 
of public affairs than could be ascribed to any of the disturbing ques- 
tions of the excited period of which I write. Breaking out at the 
very commencement of the administration, kept alive by feelings of 
the bitterest character and soon directed to the acomplishment of 
political as well as personal objects it maintained for two years a 
foothold at the seat of the Federal Government, a plague to social 
intercourse, destructive in many instances of private friendship, de- 
ranging public business and for a season, at least, disparaging the 
character of the Government. Except perhaps the disreputable 
scenes that were witnessed in England, occasioned by the quarrel 
between George IV and his unfortunate Queen, there has not been 
seen in modern times so relentless and so reckless a foray upon all 
those interests as that to which I refer. There, as here, time has 
somewhat effaced the remembrance of scenes which, as a general rule, 
are never so well treated as when they are delivered over to its de- 
youring tooth. That this should be the common fate of transactions 
which reflect no credit on the living or the dead is certainly desirable, 
but the gratification of such a wish is subject at all times to well set- 
tled and unavoidable restrictions. History asserts her right—always 


within the limitations of truth and decency—to make the follies, 


Vices, and crimes of an epoch, as well as its virtues and meritorious 
achievements subservient to her high calling, which is to warn suc- 
ceding generations as well as to attract them by examples; and indi- 


_ viduals who defend themselves against attempted implication in 


transactions which she must condemn or their friends who recognise 
the duty of protecting their memories when they can no longer 
speak for themselves, have at all times a right to probe such affairs 


_ to their most secret depths in the pursuit of their objects. 


Most gladly would I pass this subject without notice if the circum- 


stances under which I write would permit me to do so. Altho’ drawn 


- 


against my will into the very focus of the excitement and from first 


_ to last exposed to its fury, I at no time regarded it with any other 
feelings than those of pain and disgust; pain produced by daily 
_ witnessing the anguish it caused to the President and disgust at the 


339 


840 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


and to the performance of its own duties. But standing in the rela-— 
tion of closest friendship to General Jackson whilst he lived, and 
revering his memory I cannot be insensible to the unfavourable infer- 
ences and surmises which would inevitably follow, if whilst profess- — 
ing to give a faithful account of his administration, I were to pass 
over in silence an affair of which the immediate effect was to break 
up his family circle, which in its consequences contributed largely to 
the dissolution of his Cabinet, and for the part he took in which he 
was arraigned before his constituents with much formality but-with 
undisguised rancor. Reasons against such a course thus urgent in 
his case, have become imperative in regard to myself. Not only was 
my responsibility for what was done in the matter held by my oppo- 
nents to be at least co-extensive with that of the President, but in 
addition to attacks thro’ the public press and on the floor of the — 
Senate, which were visited upon both of us, a resolution was offered ~ 
to the latter body by Mr. Holmes, a Senator from the State of Maine, ~ 
for the appointment of a Committee to examine into my conduct in 
the premises with authority to send for persons and, to compel the 
introduction of papers. It is true that the Senator offering it soon 
abandoned his resolution for reasons the utter frivolousness of which 
afforded abundant evidence of the unworthy motives by which he ~ 
had been governed in its introduction—a demonstration quite unnec- 
essary to convince me, who had wintered and summered with him 
and well understood the stuff of which he was made, that such was 
its real origin and character. But his resolution stands upon the 
record and would if there were no other reasons effectually preclude 
me from omitting, in a sketch of my own life and times, a faithful 
account of my course in the matter and as much of the conduct of 
others as may be necessary to make that entirely intelligible. This 
I shall endeavour to do with proper respect to every consideration 
entitled to it and bearing upon the subject. 

The dissatisfaction caused by Gen. Jackson’s Cabinet arrange- 
ments has been already referred to. This discontent was not con- 
fined to a particular class, neither was it in all cases, occasioned by 
precisely the same causes. Major Eaton was the son of a highly re-_ 
spectable lady of Tennessee, a widow at the time of which I write, 
much esteemed by Gen. Jackson, and her son also had strongly in- 
gratiated himself in his regard and was the author, I think, of the 
first formal history of the General’s life. Major Lewis, Eaton’s 
brother-in-law, had long been an intimate personal friend of the 
General, came with him to Washington and was for many years an 
inmate of his family. The cast of the Cabinet carried a suspicion 
to the minds of many of General Jackson’s Tennessee friends, in- 
cluding a majority of the representatives of that State in Congress, 
that Eaton and Lewis had exerted a preponderating influence in its 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 3841 


construction. Their amor proprius was offended by this as they 
thought it evinced an undeserved preference, and jealousies and en- 
mities accordingly sprang up among his supporters in Tennessee 
many of which were never healed. Major Donelson, a nephew of 
Mrs. Jackson, whose wife was also her neice, and who had been from 
his infancy a member of the General’s family—a man moreover of 
much more ability than he had credit for—partook largely of this 
feeling. The seeds of dissatisfaction with and opposition to the 
first act of the President were thus extensively and deeply sown not 
only in his own State but in his immediate household. 

There was another, perhaps I should say a higher class—a class 
at all events moved by higher considerations and looking to graver 
objects—which shared freely in the prevailing discontent. When 
these latter came to canvass the materials of which the new Cabinet 
was composed and the circumstances under which it was formed 
they thought they saw in them the evidence of a design on the part 
of °the President-elect to counteract Presidential aspirations which 
his popularity had caused to be suspended, but the realization of 
which at the end of his first term, was confidently anticipated. 

The hostile feelings towards the new Cabinet, at its start, enter- 
tained by these branches of malcontents were, in variously modified 
forms, extended to the President himself and, in the sequel, espe- 
cially to the individual whose advancement was supposed—how cor- 
rectly will be hereafter seen—to have been the main object in its 
formation. It was not long before they found vent and thro’ the 
same channel. Major Eaton,’ the new Secretary of War had mar- 
ried a young widow” of much beauty and considerable smartness 
in respect to whose relations with himself before marriage, and 
whilst she was the wife of another, there had been unfavourable 
reports. A question was on that account raised as to her fitness 
for the social position otherwise due to the wife of a member of 
the Cabinet, her unworthiness alleged, with various degrees of pub- 
licity, and her exclusion from fashionable society insisted on. The 
President whilst willing and at all times avowedly ready to open 
the door to the severest scrutiny as to the facts, but confiding in 
her innocence with a sincerity that no man doubted, resented these 
doings, with the spirit and resolution natural to him on all occa- 
sions, but especially when feeling called upon to defend his friends. 
An issue was in this way and thus early formed between him and 
respectable, numerous and very powerful portions of his supporters 
which, independently of any question as to the wisdom, justice or 
propriety of the ground assumed on either side, could not possibly 


° M&. III, p. 190. 
1 John H. Eaton. 
2 Margaret [Peggy] O’Neale, widow of Purser J. B. Timberlake, U. S, N. 


842 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 


fail to generate ill-will and speedily to sever the amicable relations © 
which had until that time existed between them. 

Congress was fortunately upon the eve of its adjournment when 
this struggle commenced, and the President, the new’ Cabinet, the 
officers of Government aad the good people of Washington, or, per-— 
haps more correctly speaking, the fashionable society of Washing- 
ton, with temporary visitors to the seat of Government,—not an in- 
peiciderable number at the commencement of a new administration— 
were the principal persons, before whom and by whom the question 
of Mrs. Eaton’s eligibility was in the first instance discussed and 
acted upon. Reaching Washington some two months after the con- 
troversy had commenced, and my appointment having in no degree — 
contributed to its occurrence, I was entirely uncommitted on my 
arrival, but finding the traces of the feud too plain not to be intelli- 
gible, in walks which it was my duty to frequent, and too disturbing 
in their character to be disregarded, I felt the necessity of deciding 
upon the course I ought to take in respect to it without unnecessary 
delay. After looking at the matter in every aspect in which I 
thought it deserved to be considered I decided, for reasons not now 
necessary to assign, to make no distinction in my demeanour towards, 
or in my intercourse with the families of the gentlemen whom the 
President had, with the approbation of the Senate, selected as my 
Cabinet associates, but to treat all with respect and kindness and not — 
to allow myself, by my own acts, to be mixed up in such a quarrel. 
That others would do the latter office for me I thought not im-— 
probable but that I could not help; I could only take care, and that 
I resolved upon, that they should have no good grounds for their 
impeachments. A’ very eligible opportunity was soon presented to 
make my intentions understood by Major Eaton and his particular 
friends. An office-holder under the new régime, of no mean degree, a 
clever fellow, in both the Yankee and the English sense of that word, 
who by his own bonhommie and the social popularity of his amiable 
family, by his generous tho’ unostentatious hospitality, it is fair to 
add by his qualifications for his official duties and last, tho’ not 
least, by his facile politics has succeeded in retaining his place (with 
a single and short interruption) for the thirty years that have 
passed since that day, paid me an early and somewhat significant 
visit. He sided warmly with the lady and with her husband and 
their friends and proceeded to enlighten me on the state of the 
controversy, with full descriptions of the sayings and doings on 
both sides of it. When he had freely unbosomed himself and well 
nigh exhausted his budget of news I asked him, with unusual seri- 
ousness to listen attentively to what I had to say to him. This, with 
evident surprise, but politely and kindly he agreed to do. I then 
remarked in substance that it had been my good fortune to be abseni 


Ss eee eee ee ee ee 


ew 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 3843 


_ when the disturbance to which he alluded was first developed, that 


I was therefore in a better condition to control my feelings and 
actions in regard to it than most of my associates in the Govern- 
ment; that I sorely regretted its existence not only on account of its 
tendency: to destroy the pleasures of social intercourse between many 


of us, but in view of what was far more important, its inevitable 


effect to mar the success and security of the administration; that I 
knew nothing, nor had I heard of anything which would, in my 
opinion, require on my part the line of conduct that was pursued (as 
I was informed) by others in respect to Mrs. Eaton; that so long as 
I continued to view the matter in that light I would treat the Secre- 
tary of War and his family with the same respect and cordiality 
that I manifested towards the other members of the Cabinet and 
their families; that I should always stand ready to do anything in 
my power to allay and if ‘possible eradicate the bad spirit that un- 
happily prevailed, but that I did not want to hear what was said 
and done in the matter and finally I desired that he should under- 
stand me as preferring not to talk about it. 

My visitor was clearly disappointed by the character of my 
observations and seemed to think, altho’ this idea was expressed 
obscurely and with becoming respect, that I evinced a degree of 
lukewarmness, in the matter, quite unexpected and perhaps not | 
justified by the circumstances, or else a want of confidence in him. 
Understanding fully what was passing in his mind I first en- 


‘deavoured to disabuse him of any suspicion of that kind by avow- 


ing the favourable opinion [ sincerely entertained of him person- 
ally, and-then remarked that there were occasions when a man 
should reserve the exclusive right of judging in relation to his 


‘ proper course and conduct, that the one now the subject of our 


A 


conversation was of that nature, in my opinion, so far as I was 
at all concerned, and that my conclusions in regard to it were 
such as I thought due to my own self-respect and to my official 
position. A man of the world and of good sense himself, he ap- 
peared, as I thought, inclined to change his impressions and left 
me in good humor. 

I soon found, although nothing was said to me about it, that 
he had Peifinicaied our conversation to the Secretary of War 


and his immediate friends and especially to the President, from 
- whose manner of treating the subject, whenever it was introduced 


in my presence, I inferred with pleasure his approbation of the 


course I had marked out for myself. 


The female members of the President’s family were Mrs. Donel- 


a son, the wife of his private Secretary, and her cousin, Miss Easton, 
| % Both nieces of Mrs. Jackson and both excellent and highly esteemed 


| oe 
a 
a 
Ae 
= 
e. 
: P. ory 


844. AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


ladies. Unaffected and graceful in manners, amiable and purely 
feminine in disposition and character, and bright and self possessed 
in conversation, they were fair representatives of the ladies of Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee. Both alas! are now no more. On an occa- 
sion when the name of Mrs. Eaton was accidentally and harmlessly 
introduced, and which. was shortly after my interview above de- 
scribed, Mrs. Donelson, in the presence of her cousin, expressed her 
surprise that whilst almost every tongue in the city was canvassing 
that lady’s merits and demerits she had never heard me say any- — 
thing upon the subject, a remark the tone of which rather than the 
substance conveyed, tho’ gently, a complaint of my reserve. I was 
under an engagement which called me away and had only time to 
assure her that my silence had not arisen from an unwillingness to 
talk with them upon the subject and that with -her permission I 
would do so upon the first. favorable occasion. She took me at my 
word and we fixed the time when I was to call upon them for that 
purpose. When we met I was happy to be immediately relieved 
‘from the embarrassment that seemed inseparable from the ° parties 
to and the nature of our discussion, by a statement from Mrs, Don- 
elson of the grounds on which she justified the course she was pur- — 
suing, which was a marked one and decidedly adverse to the lady 
in question. _She spoke of her as possessing a bad temper and a 
meddlesome disposition and said that the latter had been so much 
increased by her husband’s elevation as to make her society too dis- 
agreeable to be endured. She did not allude to any rumored impu- 
tations upon her fame; she might not have believed them, she might 
have omitted to notice them from motives of delicacy, or she might 
have thought allusion to them unnecessary on account of the suf- 
ficiency of those which she frankly acknowledged.» Whether influ- 
enced by the one or the other motive I had no desire to inquire but 
took the matter up on the grounds on which she had placed it, For — 
the sake of the discussion only, I agreed, after a moment’s reflec- — 
tion, to admit that she was right in her views of Mrs. Eaton’s char- — 
' acter and disposition and proceeded to impress upon her that al- 
though her reasons would excuse her from cultivating a close in- 
timacy with that lady they neither required nor would justify her, 
having regard to her position as the female head of her Uncle’s” 
family, to decline her society to the extent to which she had gone, © 
and to caution her against being controlled in her course by persons — 
whom she esteemed, and who were entitled to her respect and regard, — 
but whose opinions upon that particular subject as I thought—im- 
deed, as I was certain—were unduly influenced. It is unnecessary 
to recapitulate my arguments; they were, in some respects, to her 


° MS, III, p. 195. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 345 


at least, of a more serious character than any that she had previously 
allowed to be taken into her consideration; they related to the situa- 
tion of her Uncle, whom she dearly loved, to the difficulties he had 
to contend with in the performance of his public duties, to the value 
he placed upon the peace and harmony of his family and the misery 
he suffered in seeing them destroyed by an affair in respect to which 
she certainly knew that he acted a sincere part, and to the extent 
to which her course sanctioned imputations of a graver character 
both upon the lady in question and upon himself for sustaining her, 
which were used by his enemies to injure him; &. &c. Before I 
had concluded Miss Easton who had sought to hide her emotions 
by gradually withdrawing herself from sight in the embrasure of 
the window, sobbed aloud, and I preceived that Mrs. Donelson be- 
sides being deeply agitated was also offended by my allusions to the 
probability that she had been unduly influenced by others upon 
such a subject. I rose from my seat, begging her to excuse whatever 
I might, under the excitement of the moment, have said to hurt her 
feelings, but perfectly satisfied that they were too far committed to 
be reached by anything I could urge, and I asked her permission to 
drop the subject. To this she assented, acknowledging that she had 
been momentarily ruffled by some of my remarks but assuring me 
that she was not offended with me. 

Our conference did not produce the slightest change in our sub- 
sequent relations. I stood, upon her invitation, as one of the spon- 
sors in baptism of her daughter, and her bearing towards me con- 
tinued respectful and kind to the day of her lamented death. 

T became convinced that Mrs. Donelson’s earnest feelings on this 
occasion and in reference to this affair were less the effects of any- 
thing that she had heard or believed than of natural sympathy 
with her husband who was deeply interested in the quarrel—dif- 
fering widely in opinion and feeling from his Uncle, the Presi- 
dent. As evidence of his great excitement at this time he after- 
wards told me that his dislike to me during the progress of these 
transactions had become so strong that “he could have drowned me 
with a drop of water.” The relations between the General and 
his family grew every day more complicated and embarrassed until 
Major Donelson and his family quitted the White House and re- 
turned to Tennessee and his place as private Secretary was supplied 
by the appointment of Mr. N. P. Trist. 

It is a fact worthy of notice that altho’ I was well acquainted 
with Major Donelson’s views and sentiments in respect to the Eaton 
matters and his temporary leaning towards Mr. Calhoun and his 
friends I never suspected him of having entertained feelings of 
personal hostility towards myself until I received from him the 
letter which follows, many years afterwards and heard from his 


t 


346 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION,  ~— ms 


own lips the explanations of its import which I have given above. — 
Desiring to offer some proof of my great respect and sincere es- _ 
teem to the General at parting and having the opinion of the Major’s — 
talents which I have already expressed, I decided, soon after my 
election to offer the latter a place in my Cabinet, and apprised them 
both of that intention. But having consulted a discreet and dis- 
interested friend from the same quarter of the Union in respect 
to the opinion likely to be formed there of the propriety of such a — 
step I was led to doubt its expediency. My friend doubted neither — 
the Major’s capacity nor his integrity but thought that the appoint- q 
ment would cause a surprise on the part of the public and would 
be regarded as an advancement disproportioned to the stations he 
had before occupied. I suggested the doubt to the General (who had 
not asked the appointment) and found that the same idea had ~ 
passed through his own mind, but that he had not felt himself at 
liberty, under the circumstances, to suggest it. I immediately wrote — 
to the Major that I had changed my mind, giving frankly the rea- — 
son for it, and received in reply the following manly letter which, — 
it will be seen, refers to the state of his feelings towards me during 
the first term of the General’s Presidency, of which also, he after- 
wards spoke to me, as I have mentioned. 


FRom MaAgsor DONELSON. 


NASHVILLE, February 21st 1837 
Dear Sir, # 

Your letter post marked the 8th inst. has just reached me. I shall set out 
in an hour or two for Washington under the hope of joining the General before 
he leaves the city and with the intention of accompanying him to the Hermitage 
if I can be of service to him. 

I am grateful for the kindness manifested in your letter and no one can be © 
more sensible than I am that the views it expresses respecting the policy of — 
my being placed in a responsible situation near you are correct. So strong 
were my convictions on this subject that I thought it my duty some eight or : 
ten days ago to write such a letter to the General as would induce you, even if ~ 
the judgment of mutual friends had created any doubt in your mind, to come 
to the decision which has been adopted. 

I cannot value too highly your friendship. It is the reward of a long | 
acquaintance manifesting much forbearance and generosity on your part. I 
went to Washington full of misconception of your character and deeply biassed — 
by many of the circumstances that attended the first four years of General 
Jackson’s canvass for the Presidency.* It will be my endeavour to make some ‘i 
amends for the injustice done you by doing all I can in my humble sphere — 
to make your true character known to those who are willing to credit me. If 
in no other respect I may in this do some good to the Republican cause by 
adding to the number of those who will judge your administration impartially. 

Although I am about to start to Washington I prefer to send this letter by 


ei coe eee Me Se ee SAS) SEEN Oe 
aThis is a slip of the pen. ‘The intended reference was to the first four years of the — 
General’s Presidency. 


ao AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 347 


e same stage, imperfect as it is as an expression of my grateful feelings 
wards you, to risking the chances of my not being able to see you before the 


_ Remember me kindly to your sons and believe me sincerely 

Your friend, 

4 A. J. DONELSON 

Ps The nature of the personal feelings which the state of things 
Thave described was calculated to engender among those connected 

with the Government and residing at Washington may be easily 

erred. All were more or less affected by it and it was under 

adverse influences that we worked through the spring, summer 


men ° only and passed off without embarrassment. A Cabinet din- 
ner, to which the ladies of the families of the members who com- 
posed it would have to be invited was not even spoken of in my 
hearing before the month of November. That subject was then intro- 
by the President in one of our rides, which, when the weather 
_ permitted, were almost of daily occurrence and gradually length- 

ened as Seeentins the best opportunities for consultation left to us 
by the press of visitors and other preoccupations. He had, he said, 
_ been led to postpone his Cabinet dinners to so late a period by an 
_ undefined apprehension that the violent feelings of the members on 
; both sides of the social problem out of which our difficulties had 
_ arisen, and of which he had not been suffered to remain ignorant, 
might lead to unavoidable acts on his part with which he thought 
it would be more difficult for an Administration to deal in its in- 
_ fancy, than after it had been some time under way and been 
___ allowed opportunities to advance itself in the favor of the people. 
Public business, he remarked, must always be attended to when the 
occasion for its performance arises, but with matters of ceremony, 
that under consideration, he thought a greater latitude was 
allowable. As the session of Congress was ener near at hand, 
wh er this matter should not rest undisposed of he thought the 


3 “Thad entertained similar peheasienk and had therefore omitted 


to allude to the subject in our familar conversations—embracing, 
from time to time, almost every other subject. But I never expected 


° MS. III, p. 200. 


348 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


templated by a portion of the Cabinet would be reserved for mine, — 
which would naturally follow. I expressed that opinion to him with 
much confidence and it was decided that his invitations should be 
forthwith sent out. 

There were no absentees at the President’s Cabinet dinner, and 
no very marked exhibitions of bad feeling in any quarter, but there 
were nevertheless sufficient indications of its existence to destroy 
the festive character of the occasion and to make it transparently 
a formal and hollow ceremony. The President escorted the wife 
of the Secretary of the Treasury to the table and I gave my arm 
to Mrs. Donelson. The disposition of the others I have forgotten, 
but I will remember the care with which the arrangement of the 
parties was made. The general was as usual courteous and affable 
altho’ suffering much from bad health and more from mortification 
at what was passing before his eyes. My young friend and partner 
for the entertainment summoned up spirits enough to call my atten- — 
tion chiefly by glances, to the signs of the hour and following the 
movements of our host, we left the table with the ladies after which ~ 
the company dispersed sooner than usual. I had intended to spend 
a few moments with the President after they were gone but soon ~ 
perceived that the return he had received for all his sacrifices of 
old friendships and his unhesitating confrontal of enemies in the 
formation of the Cabinet which had just left him had overcome ~ 
his feelings, and commending him to his pillow I also took my leave. 

The display I had witnessed would have been sufficient to put me 
on my guard in respect to my own contemplated entertainment if that 
had been needed. But without such warning I understood too well 
the motives which pointed to that occasion as one best adapted for a 
kind of semi-official notification of the rule by which some of my 
associates intended to be governed, to fail of cireumspection in my 
movements. That they would decline my invitation I had no doubt, 
but whether in so doing, they would only assert and exercise their 
own rights without offense to me, or whether they would go farther 
could only ‘be known by the sequel. It was my business to be pre-_ 
pared for either contingency. 

According to the established forms of society in Washington it 
would have been my office as host to give the highest position and 
the most marked attention to the wife of the Secretary of the Treas- — 
ury, if no ladies were present except those of members of the Cabi-— 
net. Mrs. Ingham was an excellent and estimable person, ‘but excit- — 
able and especially stirred up upon the vexed question which agi- 
tated the official and social circles of the Federal Capital. I was 
entirely willing to pay all the honors due to herself and to her posi- 
tion. [I was nevertheless quite confident that she would decline, 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 3849 


and I was not disposed to make the vacancy occasioned by that event 
conspicuous by filling it with a lady of inferior rank.]' But Mrs. 
Randolph, the widow of Gov. Thomas Mann Randolph, of Virginia, 
and the only surviving child of President Jefferson, in all respects 
one of the worthiest women of America, was then residing at 
Washington, a lady with whom and with her family consisting of an 
unmarried daughter and of Mr. and Mrs. N. P. Trist, the latter also 
her daughter, my relations were cordial and intimate. I waited upon 
her in person, informed her of my intention to invite the Cabinet to 
dine with me and of my desire to combine with that official cere- 
mony an act of respect towards her which had been already too long 
delayed and requested her to name the day if she was willing to do 
me the honor to attend. 

She cheerfully agreed to my proposition, the day was fixed and 
the invitation extended to all the members of her family. I need 
scarcely say at least to those acquainted with the ways of Wash- 
ington, that it would have been quite impossible to prevent this 
proceeding on my part from becoming known without any agency 
of hers to the other invited guests who were thus apprised of my 
intention to give the precedence to Mrs. Randolph. As my dinner 
party was to be what in common parlance is called a ladies’ dinner 
I was desirous that there should be no lack of ladies and anticipat- 
ing further declensions I invited several military gentlemen and 
their wives, who all attended. I was obliged to omit my highly 
esteemed and amiable friend the Commander in Chief, because 
Mrs. M. (who was his second wife) had made herself—more to 
his amusement than annoyance, for he took such things lightly— 
a conspicuous party to the war which raged around us; but I re- 
member well the presence of the veterans, Hull and Chauncey and 
of Commodore Warrington* and of the wives of all three who 
were among the most agreeable as they were also the leading 
members of the society of Washington. 

Never having been very careful or orderly in securing even my 
important papers and having especially exposed them by frequent 
changes of residence to be lost or mislaid, it is a curious instance 
of the accidental escape of such trifles from destruction that I 


have still in my possession the answers of the Secretary of the 


Navy and of the Attorney G/ eral to my invitation on this occa- 
sion. I suppose that they were originally kept in anticipation of 
a rupture of some sort in our relations. They lie before me as I 
write—recalling the minutie of the scenes and events, great and 
small, of thirty years ago, which I am describing. 


_____ ea ee eee ae 
1 Words in brackets were stricken out in the MS. 
2Maj.-Gen. Alexander Macomb. 
3JIsaac Hull, Isaac Chauncey, and Lewis Warrington. 


350 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


_ Mr. Branch? writes that he “will avail himself of the honor of 
_ dining with Mr. Van Buren” on &c. but that he is requested to 
say in behalf of Mrs. Branch and the young ladies that “cireum- 
stances unnecessary to detail will deprive them of the pleasure” &¢. 
_ Mr. Berrien presents his respects but pleads a “ conditional engage- 
ment to leave the city” for his own declension and “her state of © 
health” for that of his daughter. According to the best of my 
recollection Mr. Ingham? accepted for himself, and Mrs. Ingham > 
certainly declined. The other two members of the Cabinet, Major 
Eaton and Mr. Barry,? brought apologies from their wives, who 
were faithful allies and who it appeared had also resolved to remain 
behind their batteries. Thus it resulted that at the second Cabinet 
dinner of the season to which all the ladies of the family of its 
members were invited not one of them “assisted”, and the party 
being freed from any kind of embarrassment their joy was uncon- 
fined. Mrs. Randolph especially manifested the greatest gratifica- 
tion, tothe satisfaction of all my guests who reverenced her almost — 
~as much as I did; to come quite up to that mark required a more 
intimate knowledge of her admirable qualities than they had en- 
joyed opportunities to acquire. 

It may as well be said here as anywhere that neither in their 
answers to my successive invitations, nor in their angry correspond- 
ence with others nor in their excited appeals to the public, all of 
which I have now taken the trouble to re-peruse, did Messrs. Ingham 
and Berrien impute to me a blameable act or motive in respect to 
these transactions, although the latter papers were written under 
very excited feelings. These facts speak a language that cannot 
be misunderstood as to the sense in which they felt obliged to regard — 
my whole demeanour in the affair now under consideration,° and 
are more than sufficient to repel any unfavorable inferences tha 
can be drawn from the introduction of a resolution of enquiry by 
a proverbially indecorous Senator—a resolution which even he aban- 
doned. Of Gov. Branch’s course I am not quite so certain. On 
the evening before my resignation and that of Major Eaton were 


had aaeate nena the President and myself were invited ta 
attend the wedding of his daughter. He [Branch] took me apart, 
spoke of our resignations, acknowledged that he had been at first 
somewhat annoyed but was now entirely reconciled to the proceeding 
as the necessary result of causes which we could not control, and en- 
couraged me to hope that the whole matter would settle down as 


1 John Branch, 8 William T. Barry. 
2Samuel D, Ingham, ° MS. III, p. 205, 


Pe 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 351 


quietly as all the letters of resignation and acceptance gave the public 
5 right to expect. From that day to the present I have never seen 
him save once and for a moment. I heard, from time to time, of 
is making violent speeches against me and = but I never saw 
th em nor had I any desire to see them. I believed him to be an 
honest man and knew him to be in general influenced by just and 
generous impulses, but made of inflammable materials which were 
e sily ignited by others; indeed, but a few days after our meeting 
and conversation referred to I heard that he had been thus excited. 
I Bnew, however, that he would say and do what was right when 
his feelings were sobered down, and in the course of time they ar- 
ved at that condition, he “ conquered his prejudices” against Presi- 
dent Jackson, paid a brief visit to the White House during his 
“second term, when I saw him for a few moments and exchanged 
respectful and kind salutations with him. Major Donelson, whose 
brother had married his daughter, informed me afterwards that 
! the Governor had expressed to him the mortification he had expe- 
rienced in being treated with so much urbanity by a man of whom 
had said so many hard things. I begged the Major to assure 
‘him that he need give himself no uneasiness on that head because 
[ had never read his speeches and certainly would not think of 
doing so now. 
a mined to go thro’ with the matter in hand, so far as I was 
myself concerned, and to have done with it, I Saat out invitations 
y after my Cabinet dinner and after Congress had assembled, 
a large evening party. With some modifications my official asso- 
ates held to their previous course, and to add fuel to the flame a 
communication appeared in the Washington Journal newspaper, over 
_ the signature of “Tarquin,” (!) charging me with an attempt, in 
conjunction with Sir Charles Vaughan, the British Minister, to force 
a person upon the society of Washington who was not entitled to its 
privileges and calling upon those who had been invited to resent the 
' outrage by refusing to be present. The circles of Washington how- 
_ ever quite naturally declined to be instructed in the proprieties and 
moralities of social intercourse by a “ Tarquin ” and no party of the 
on was attended more numerously or enjoyed more hilariously. 
Suffering at the time from ill-health and much exhausted by the 
reception I availed myself of the moment when the attention of my 
ests was attracted by the commencement of dancing to retire to a 
in a lower room for rest. I had not been there long before a 
end entered and said, in a jocular tone, “Are you here, Sir!—You 
ht to be above if you wish to prevent a fight! ”, and answered my 
k of enquiry by the information that Mrs. Eaton and Mrs. M. 
had jostled each other, doubtless accidentally, in the crowd, and that 


352 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


‘ 
“>. ee 


the collision had provoked manifestations of mutual resentment suffi-— 
ciently marked to attract attention and to excite general remark. 
I received his story as a jest, which it probably was in a measure, and 
begged him to see fair play in my behalf and to leave me to my 
repose. 

I have described more particularly than they would appear to 
deserve these two entertainments, but for a brief season they ob- 
tained much consequence as incidents of a campaign in which social, 
political and personal feuds were so mixed up that all of them 
were more or less affected by every movement, and the gossips had 
looked forward to the arrangement of my parties as the occasion 
and the field for a general engagement.. When they were over it was 
found that they had not materially contributed to the development 
of hostilities, and-I confess that I experienced all the complacency 
naturally inspired by the consciousness of having passed unscathed 
thro’ an ordeal as difficult and as severe as could be devised by a 
conspiracy of excited women and infuriated partisans. But the 
outbreak was not long delayed. At a ball given by the Russian — 
Minister, Baron Krudener, in the absence of Mrs. Ingham, led Mrs. 
Eaton to supper, as ranking next to her, and Madame Huygens, the 
wife of the Dutch Envoy, was assigned to the Secretary of War. 
Madame Huygens was reported to have been highly offended by 
the arrangement and to have declared that she would retaliate by 
giving a party to which Mrs. Eaton should not be invited and that 
her example would be followed by Messrs. Ingham, Branch and 
Berrien. Major Eaton was a man of moderate intellectual capacities, 
but justly distinguished for the kindness, generosity and unobtru- 
siveness of his disposition and demeanour. If he had done the wrong* 
before his marriage which was imputed to him, as to which I knew 
and sought to know nothing, he had also done all that a man could 
do to remedy the evil and there was no reason even to suspect that 
the life of the lady after marriage was not, in that respect at least, 
free from reproach. A reverend gentleman had indeed carried 
rumors to the President to the effect that her conduct had been ex 
ceptionable on a visit to the Northern cities. The General insiste 
that his informer should go immediately and sift the stories thor 
oughly, assuring him that if his report sustained them by reliabl 
facts no one would have reason to complain of his own course i 
the matter. The mission was accepted, the Cabinet, except Majo 
Eaton was called together in the evening to hear the report but 1 
was found to amount to nothing. 

A man of the temperament I have ascribed to Eaton was likel 
under any circumstances, to have warm and sympathizing friend 
The number in his case, was of course greatly increased by the pa 


.« AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 353 


—T 


ronage at his disposal and by the favour with which he was re- 
garded by the President. These pressed upon the latter the Major’s 
“grievances with much earnestness and their appeals found favorable 
responses in his own breast. The alleged threat of Madame Huygens 
and the three parties which certainly followed—whether she actually 
threatened them or not—supplied ample and stirring materials for 
‘such complaints. The President sent for me at an early hour one 
morning and I went to him before breakfast. I found him deeply 
‘moved by communications that had been made to him on the pre- 
‘vious evening. His eyes were blood-shot and his appearance in other 
respects indicated that he had passed a sleepless night, as he indeed 
admitted had been literally the case. He was however unexcited in 
manner. The stories so often told of his violent and furious style 
on occasions of great anger or deep feeling, so far as my observation 
extended, had no other foundation than this that when he thought 
he could in that way best influence anybody to do his duty—of 
which I have given some instances and shall give others—he would 
assume an earnestness and an emphasis much beyond what he really 
felt. To me he always appeared most calm when he felt most in- 
-tensely. On the occasion of his very narrow escape from assassina- 
‘tion, at the funeral of Warren R. Davis, I followed him to the White 
House, immediately after the rites of burial were concluded, and 
found him sitting with one of Major Donelson’s children on his lap 
and conyersing with General Scott, himself apparently the least 
disturbed person in the room. 

He presented, with deliberation and clearness, the reasons which 
led him to regard the proceedings to which I have referred as an 
attack upon himself designed to be made effectual thro’ a combina- 
tion between members of his Cabinet and the wife of one of the 
Foreign Ministers, and stated, in the same manner, the course which 
he thought it would become him to pursue, which was—if his views 
should prove to be well founded to dismiss his own Ministers and 
to send Mr. Huygens his passports. 

His immediate object was to attend to the latter, and to that end 
he had sent for me to obtain my counsel and co-operation. My per- 
sonal relations with Chevalier and Madame Huygens were of a 
- friendly and indeed intimate character. I had no reason to doubt 
‘that she felt hurt as was represented, by the occurrences at Baron 
* Krudener’ s, but deemed it quite unlikely that she would have given 
"expression to her feelings in the way which had been reported 
to the President. If, however, the information of the latter was 
correct, I could not for a moment doubt the propriety of the course 
he suggested, in that direction, and declared this opinion to him 
without hesitation. 
127483°—voL 2—20—— 23 


354 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


As soon as I reached my office I informed Chevalier Huygens" 
by note that I desired to see him on business, and that as it would’ 
also be necessary to communicate with Madame Huygens I would 
call at his house at a named hour. For reasons, not necessary to 
be stated, they anticipated the object of my visit and received me 
with their usual kindness. After declining their invitation to the 
pipe and schiedam, notwithstanding the appropriateness of these 
preliminaries to a Dutch negotiation,° I stated explicitly that the 
President disclaimed all right or desire to meddle with their social. 
relations or with the question of whom they invited or whom they 
omitted to invite to their house, but that declarations had been at- 
tributed to Madame Huygens and communicated to the President 
which went beyond the exercise of the rights which belonged to them, | 
and I described the impressions which the possibility of the cor- 
rectness of his information had made upon his mind. Madame 
Huygens assured me solemnly that she had never used the expres- 
sions attributed to her or any of similar import—that she had been 
too long connected with diplomatic life, and understood too well 
what belonged to her position, to meddle in such matters and that 
she had only pursued the path I conceded to her without advising 
with others or troubling herself about their course. ‘The Chevalier 
united earnestly in the views she expressed, and avowed his con- 
viction of the accuracy of her recollections, and my mission was 
thus satisfactorily concluded. As we had no desire to pursue the 
enquiry further I reported the result to the President who received 
the information with unaffected pleasure for he sympathized heartily 
with the respect and regard I entertained for the Dutch Minister. 
and his estimable family. x 

As the matter in some sense bore on our relations with a Foreign 
Government I thought it desirable that I should possess some evi- 
dence of the statement upon which I had proceeded, and so wrote 
to the President from whom I received immediately the following 
reply: 


FROM THE PRESIDENT. 
(Private. ) 

My Dear Sir : 
Your note was rec'd, of this evening, when I had company, and so soon 
as they have left me I have hastened to reply—tThe story is this—Shortly 
after the party at Baron Krudener’s it was stated that Madame H. was 
piqued at something that took place there and said she would give a party 
and would shew society that she did not recognize Mrs. E. as a fit associat 
and would not invite her to it. The Heads of the Departments, say the 
gossips, would follow suit and Mrs. E. and the Major would be put out of 
society. This came to the ears of some members of Congress, and the attempt 
thus, by a Foreign Minister’s family, to put out of society the family of a 


° MS. III, p. 210, 


F AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. BOO 


member of my Cabinet was thought to be such an attack upon me, who had 
invited this member to come into it, that it aroused their feelings and the 
- communication was made tome. The three parties that followed, given by the 
three Heads of Departments, were well calculated to give credit to the story 
of a combination headed by Madame H. to put Major Eaton and his family 
out of society and thereby to assail my character for inviting him into it. These’ 
are the tales and I am happy Madame H. has stated they are not true as far 
as she is concerned. This is the substance. 
t Wrs: 
ANDREW JACKSON. 


so 


Jan’y 247H 1830. 

It was probably on the following day—certainly before the 27th 
of that month, that I had, at his instance, a conference with the 
President upon the subject of the relations between him and the 
members of his Cabinet and the effect upon them of the matters 
related. Nothing was then done upon the subject, but a year and 
a half later and after the war had broken out between him and 
the portion of his Cabinet with whose course he had been offended, 
and I had leit Washington and was awaiting the sailing of the 
packet from New York, he applied to me for my recollections of this 
branch of the general subject. I retained a copy of so much of my 
letter as related to it, which was never published, but will now be 
given at the proper place. According to my then recollection it 
appears that he showed me, at that interview, a paper contain- 
ing the basis of a communication which he intended to address 
to those gentlemen and that I expressed the opinion that he did not 
by it sufficiently guard himself against the imputation of enter- 
taining a desire to control the domestic and social intercourse of 
their families and advised a personal interview with them for which 
a paper more carefully constructed might be prepared and shewn 
to them in preference to a formal correspondence; that he dis- 
claimed any such intention or desire and agreed not only to such 
a modification of the paper but also to the substitution of a per- 
sonal interview for a letter. I added that such a paper as I rec- 
ommended may have been prepared by me on the spot from the 
materials before me, to be copied by him and reserved for the 
use contemplated—the course which I am quite confident was pur- 
sued. He then informed me that he had held some conversation 
on the subject with Col. Richard M. Johnson who was very desirious 

-of an interview with the gentlemen alluded to before any communi- 
cation was made to them on his part in the hope of being able 
to quiet existing difficulties. Knowing the Colonel’s character and 
disposition perfectly and that with proved and undoubted courage 
he united qualities admirably adapted to the office of peace-maker, 
but that from his unsuspicious temperament he was not always 
as guarded in conversation as might be desirable in such a case, 


856 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


I begged the General, if he consented to his interference in the 
matter, to be careful that he should be fully possessed of his views, 
and suggested the propriety of reading to him, before he entered 
upon the business, the paper already prepared, and that the char- 
acter in which he acted should also be clearly understood. 

The Colonel had his conferences with Messrs. Ingham, Branch 
and Berrien, and the President his interview with them in which 
he spoke to them of the alleged combination and attempt to drive 
Major Eaton from the Cabinet and I always supposed that he 
shewed them the paper referred to, but whether he did or did not 
do this they were all satisfied that he did not claim any such right 
as that which was described in it, and altho’ the principal matter 
remained substantially on the footiae on which it stood before, 
those gentlemen remained in the Cabinet a year and a half longer. 
During that period the Eaton affair was eclipsed in importance 
and soon divested of any agency in mischief or disturbance by 
two occurrences—Mr. Calhoun’s pronunciamento and, some two 
or three months later, the resignations of Major Eaton and my- 
self, drawing after foal the resignations of all the members of 
the Cabinet except Postmaster General Barry. The latter, altho’ 
he adhered throughout to his friends, the Eatons, pursued the 
tenor of his way so unobtrusively and noiselessly as to give no 
offense to the other parties to the quarrel. 

The outbreak between the President and the gentlemen who baal 
formed a part of his Cabinet assumed a very violent character after 
I left Washington. Those who have the curiosity to look into the 
matter will find that the dissolution of the Cabinet had been to all 
appearance, amicably accomplished. There was some little demur 
on the parts of the Secretaries of the Treasury and Navy to sending 
in their resignations, but in the end the correspondence, on its face 
imported a friendly settlement. AJI were to remain at their posts 
until their successors were appointed and their official business placed 
in the state in which they desired to leave it. The resignations, ex- 
cept Mr. Berrien’s, who was absent till June, were in April, and the 
final retirement of the Cabinet was delayed until June. With the 
single exception of a few enigmatical givings-out by the Secretary o: 
the Navy as to the existence of a “malign influence” everything 
seemed to be going on to a favorable issue. The hopes of those who 
felt an interest in the character of the Government and thought that 
it had been prejudiced by the quarrel, and of those who desired the 
success of General Jackson’s administration began to revive. It was 
believed that the functions of Government were no longer to be per- 
formed in an atmosphere tainted by private scandal, and that the 
State was relieved from the defiling clutch of the gossips. In thi 


Es AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 357 
2a 


condition of things I left Washington, but had scarcely reached my 
own State when the disease with which the Capital had so long la- 
bored broke out afresh and with redoubled fury. It is not easy to 
determine precisely who was most to blame for this new outbreak. It 
s certain that the fault was not altogether on either side. The U. S. 
Telegraph newspaper, referred to the course pursued by the families 
of the three Cabinet Ministers towards the family of Major Eaton 
in an offensive way. This was indefensible and proved to be very 
mischievous. The Major, claiming to hold those gentlemen in some 
‘sense responsible for the course of the Telegraph in that matter, pub- 
lished an article in the Globe, obviously designed to bring Mr. 
Branch, who had left the city, to a fight. Eaton also copied the 
‘article from the Telegraph, in which ° the course said to have been 
pursued by their families was described as that of the gentlemen 
themselves, and sending the extract to Messrs. Ingham and Berrien, 
called upon them to avow or disavow its contents. His notes and 
stracts were in terms the same, and both admitted of no other con- 
struction than that the proceedings were intended as preliminary 
to a duel with each in certain events. This was also wrong. He 
‘had no right to hold them responsible for the publication in ques- 
tion and the assumption of such a responsibility was plainly a pre- 
te nce thro’ which to revive with them, in another form, a quarrel 
from which he had suffered much and to which he saw there was to be 
-noend. Mr. Berrien answered his note on the basis of the article, 
_as explained in an issue subsequent to the original publication, and 
by which its application was limited to the course of the families of 
members of the Cabinet, disclaimed his responsibility in explicit 
_ terms, but wisely decided to make a reply to the Major’s alleged 
"grievance. He did this coolly and admirably and in a way which 
- obliged Eaton, whose good nature never entirely deserted him, to 
_ enter a nolle prosequi as respected the Attorney General, without the 
slightest sacrifice of character or dignity on the part of either. 
_ Mr. Ingham, unhappily in a great rage, for which he certainly 
thought he had abundant cause, adopted the extract in the shape 
iven to it originally and as it was sent to him, and replied to Ea- 
on’s demand that the latter “ must be not a little deranged ” to call 
pon him to disavow what all the inhabitants of Washington knew, 
and perhaps half the people of the United States believed to be true 
to wit: that he had refused to associate with his (Major Eaton’s) 
family. A challenge was the consequence, and, that not being ac- 
cepted, preparations for a personal assault followed. Amidst dem- 
nstrations offensive and defensive connected with such an opera- 
tion the time arrived which the ex-Secretary of the Treasury had 


° MS. 111, p. 215. 


358 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


fixed upor. for his departure from Washington, and after having 
as he thought sufficiently exposed himself in the streets, accompanied 
by the gallant Col. Towson, a friend or two and his son, the latter 
and himself, armed, he left the city. 3 
If no blood was spilled—which is somewhat remarkable in a 
quarrel upon so exciting a subject and kept on foot for two years— 
a sufficient quantity of ink certainly was shed upon the subject. 
The Telegraph charged the President with having seventeen months 
previously thro’ a distinguished member of Congress, required the 
members of his Cabinet to associate with Mrs. Eaton, at least so 
far as to invite her to their large parties, on pain of dismissal. This 
was presented as a great abuse of office, as it certainly would have 
been. The Globe denied this charge, ee it as a calumny 
and defied its author to the proof. No attempt to establish it being 
made the latter went further and declared that the member of Con- 
gress referred to was admitted to be Col. Richard M. Johnson, a 
man of proverbial benevolence, great bravery and undoubted verac- 
ity, that the Colonel denied the truth of the charge in the fullest 
manner, and that Mr, Berrien had, in his correspondence with 
Major Eaton, admitted the falsity of the charge. This brought 
out Mr. Berrien, who, after some parleying in respect to a promise 
he had made to Col. Johnson (who was at his home in Kentucky) 
to wait until an opportunity could be afforded to all the parties to 
compare recollections before publications were ° made, if any should 
be found necessary, denied the admission. Mr. Blair rejoined by-set- 
ting forth the following declaration of Mr. Berrien to Major Eaton 
when speaking of his interview with the President in January 
1830:—“ In the interview to which I was invited by the President, 
some few days afterwards, I frankly exposed to him my views on 
the subject, and he disclaimed any disposition to press such a requisi- 
tion.” This Mr. Blair construed into an admission such as he had 
claimed in the Globe. Mr. Berrien, in answer, insisted “that a 
disclaimer of an intention to press a requisition was a wholly dif- 
ferent thing from a denial of ever having made it,” and here the cor- 
respondence between these parties, in which there had been a good 
deal of sharp shooting, terminated. But Messrs. Berrien, Ingham, 
Branch and Eaton all came out with impassioned and elaborate 
appeals to the public upon this question. The alacrity and zeal 
with which the authors of the charge entered upon its support 
the labor and formality given to those quasi-State papers, den 
the confident expectation of overthrowing the President by its in- 
fluence. Mr. Berrien in his voluminous publication—embracing 
the correspondence between himself and Major Eaton, his and Mr. 


° MS. Book IV, p. 1. 


ad 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 3859 


Ingham’s letters to Col. Johnson and Mr. Ingham’s statement made 
from notes taken at the time,—spoke of the subject as one “ of awak- 
ening interest to all.” They affirmed that Col. Johnson came to them 
as from the President and representing his views and that he 
required, in his behalf, that they should invite Mrs. Eaton to their 
Jarge parties on pain of dismissal. They denied that the President 
bad shown them the paper of which I have spoken and which had 


been brought before the public by Mr. Blair, upon. the authority 


of the President, who declared then that he had read it to them or 
made them acquainted with its contents, but Mr. Berrien stated that 
he did not question the intention of the President to have shewn 
this paper to him nor his belief that he did so, and they admitted 
that he had waived, in Mr. Berrien’s language, had not “ pressed,” 
the requisition of which they charged that Col. Johnson had been the 
bearer, but understood this as a change of position brought about 
through the intervention of his Tennessee friends. 

Col. Johnson met these charges and statements by two letters ad- 
dressed to Messrs. Ingham and Berrien, separately, in reply to the 
letters they had written before their appeals to the public. His 
letters were published in the National Intelligencer, newspaper and 
the following is a brief extract from that to Mr. Berrien :— 


OAKLAND, (Ky.) July 20th, 1831: 
Dear Sik: 

Your favor of the 7th instant has been received. I find that you under- 
stood me to say that the President would at least expect the invitation of 
Mrs. Baton when you gave large and general parties. The President never 
did, directly or indirectly, express or intimate such an expectation. He in- 
formed me that he had been induced to believe that a part of his Cabinet had 
entered into a combination to drive Maj. Eaton from it, by excluding him 
and his family from society; that he had been also informed that the succes- 
sive parties to which you allude was a link in the chain; that attempts had 
been made even upon foreign ministers to exclude Maj. Eaton from their par- 
ties; and such a state of things gave him great distress; that he was deter- 
mined at all hazards to have harmony in his Cabinet. He then read a paper 
containing the principles upon which he intended to act. In my conversation 
with you I referred to this paper. No doubt it is now in existence. It dis- 
claimed all intentions, on the part of the President, to regulate in any man- 
ner whatever, the private or social intercourse of the members of his Cab- 
inet. As a mutual friend I called upon you, and as a peacemaker, my object 
was to make the above communication in the most delicate manner possible. 
During our conversation, in the anxiety of my heart to serve my friend and 
my Country, it was I alone, upon my own responsibility, who made the sugges- 
tion or proposition or rather enquiry whether you could not, at those large and 
promiscuous parties, invite Maj. Haton and his family. From the total social 


“non-intercourse of the members of the Cabinet the want of harmony was in- 


ferred, more than from any other circumstance; and my desire was to remedy 
that evil by the suggestion or inquiry which I made. It would have been an 
absolute unqualified and total misrepresentation of his views if I had repre- 
sented the President as making any such demand. 


860 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


From Col. Johnson’s letter to Mr. Ingham I extract as follows:— 


BuvuE Sprines, July 31; 1831. 
Dear Srr— 
Yours of the 16th instant was this day received, accompanied by a statemen 1 
which, it seems, you have prepared for the public, purporting to contain separate 
conversations, with the President and myself, relative to an allegation made il 
the public journals that General Jackson had authorized a member of Congress — 
to require of Messrs. Berrien, Branch, and yourself, and your families, to asso- 
ciate with Major Eaton, and his family under the penalty of being dismissed — 
from office. You refer to two articles in the Globe to justify your appeal to the 
public, previously to receiving my answer, in which it appeared that I had-de- 
nied the above allegation, if it had any allusion to me, After the publication of 
this accusation against General Jackson, I received a letter from a friend, in- © 
timating that I was the member of Congress to whom allusion was made, and — 
requested to know if I had ever made such a communication. In my answer Ig 
confined myself to the specific accusation thus publicly made against the Presi- 
dent, and which is attributable to yourself, and most unequivocally denied that 
General Jackson ever made such a requisition through me, and as positively de- 
. nied having ever made such a statement to you. On the contrary I asserted and 
now repeat, I did inform you, in each and every interview that the President — 
disclaimed any right or intention to interfere in any manner whatever with the 
regulation of your private or social intercourse. , 
Thus in a matter in which I was engaged to serve you, and other friends, 
in a matter of a delicate and highly confidential nature, and in which I suc- 
ceeded, unexpectedly I found myself presented in» the public journals as a 
witness impeaching one of those friends, and ascribing to him declarations — 
which he never made; and placed in that attitude by you, self respect - and : 
self defence called upon me to correct that erroneous statement. I cannot, 
therefore, agree with you, that I did in any degree change my view of the 
subject in considering it improper in any of the parties to come before the 
public without the opportunity of comparing our different recollections. 4 
But if you feel under any obligations of a personal or political character 
to come before the public previously, you will find me as ready as yourself — 
to meet any responsibility or difficulty which such a course may produce. 
I now come to the material point in controversy—whether Gen. Jackson, — 
through me, required of you to invite Major Eaton and his family to your | 
large parties. This suggestion was made upon my own responsibility, with | 
an anxious desire more effectually to reconcile the then existing difficulties. 
But Gen. Jackson never did make such a requisition, in any manner what- 
ever, directly or indirectly, nor did I ever intimate to you that he had made— 
such a demand. The complaint made by Gen. Jackson against this part of his 
«Cabinet was specific, that he had been informed, and was induced to believe, 
that they were using their influence to have Major Baton and his family ex- 
cluded from all respectable circles, for the purpose of degrading ° him, and 
thus drive him from office; and that the attempt had been made even upon 
the foreign ministers, and in one case had produced the desired effect. He 
proposed no mode of accommodation or satisfaction, but declared expressly that | 
if such was the fact he would dismiss them from office. He then read to me 
a paper containing the principles upon which he intended to act; which dis- 
claimed the right to interfere with the social relations of his Cabinet. 


° MS. IV, p. 5. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 361 


ies, and such were their respective allegations and proof. It 
us never pretended that the requisition referred to had ever been 
ade upon them by the President in person or thro’ any other chan- 
than Col. Johnson. In the only conversation they had had with 


say he did not press it—he says he disclaimed it in the most un- 
e quivocal terms. Col. Johnson’s statement is the only evidence that 
introduced and notwithstanding the formality and confidence 
h which this grave accusation had been brought forward and 


the General’s canvass for re-election, which took place the very 
<t year, when everything else was raked up, it was never alluded to. 
A few words more in respect to myself. Whilst at New York and 
= the eve of sailing for England I received a letter from the Presi- 
dent inquiring as to my recollections upon this branch of the general 
ject, which I gave him in a letter, dated August 14th, 1831, the 
hole of which together with the letter to which it was a reply, will 
be found in the Correspondence. 

_ My statement was never published as the President, I was happy 
to find, adopted the advice I gave him. 

- The Plowing extract embraces what relates to the présent matter: 


eI will in the first place answer your queries in regard to the interview be- 
tween Messrs. Ingham, Branch & Berrien & yourself upon the subject of their 
ourse towards Mr. & Mrs. Eaton. Neither with those gentlemen, nor with 
Colonel Johnson have I had any conversation, confidential or otherwise, upon 
that subject. I recollect your sending for me one morning & that when I ar- 
ved I found you sensibly affected by an impression which had been made 
yon your mind that Messrs. Ingham, Branch & Berrien were taking measures 
in concert to exclude Mrs. Eaton from the society of Washington. You stated 
3 to me in a general way the grounds upon which that impression was founded, 
; _ referring to several successive parties which had been given by those gentle- 
k len, & to information which had been given to you by others without warn- 
them, and declared that you felt it to be your duty & had made up your 
id to interfere in a prompt & efficacious manner & put an end to the pro- 
dings of which you complained. You then shewed me a paper which, ac- 
ording to my recollections, was in the form of a letter addressed to those 
tlemen, expressive of your views & feelings on the subject. 
_ do not remember to have seen that letter since & cannot undertake to state 
th certainty its form or contents. In one respect, however, I can, from the 
mstance I am about to state, speak with more precision. I recollect that 
mn reading the paper, it appeared to me that the manner in which you ex- 
essed yourself might be coustrued into an attempt on your part to control 
se gentlemen in their personal associations, which I believed to be foreign 


-1Jackson’s letter of Aug. 8, 1831, and Van Buren’s autograph signed reply, Aug. 14, 


* 


e in the Van Buren Papers. 


3862 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


to your wishes, and under that impression I suggested to you the propriety of 
being altogether explicit upon that point. You at once disclaimed such a w 
& expressed a readiness so to modify the paper as to disavow any s 
intention, and to confine your complaint in terms to the supposed concert 
on the part of those gentlemen to effect the object referred to, a course of 
conduct which you regarded as not only unjust towards Mr. & Mrs. Haton, 
as being a direct attack upon yourself for continuing in your Cabinet a gen e- 
man towards whose family such steps could be deemed justifiable. Hxpressions 
to that effect were introduced in the paper which were I thought sufficient to 
prevent misapprehensions with regard to your views. It is my impression i 
I took the further liberty of suggesting to you the propriety of substituting a 
personal interview & a frank & free commufication of your sentiments n 
preference to a formal correspondence upon the subject, adding that you might 
in that case also have the grounds you inteuded to take previously stated in 
writing, that there might be less room for misapprehension upon a point which 
we both regarded as one of great delicacy. 4 
I left you, according to my best recollection, either positively decided or at 
least strongly inclined to adopt that course. It may be that the paper was 
drawn up whilst I was with you & that my observations were founded w 
your declarations as to what you intended to say,—but my best recollection 
as I have stated. Since that time I have not seen the paper referred to, 
have I, my dear Sir, the slightest recollection that the subject was at any time 
afterwards made matter of observation between us. It is quite natural to 
suppose that such may have been the case, but I have, before as well as since 
the receipt of your letter, thought much upon the subject & I cannot call 
mind anything that passed between us in regard to your interviews with 
Messrs. Ingham, Branch & Berrien, after they had taken place. It may w 
be that you informed me of what had transpired at them—but if you did it 
certainly escaped my recollection; and my belief is that the matter being, 
you hoped, finally disposed of & influenced by a wish, which you have always 
manifested, not to press the general subject unnecessarily upon my attention, 
you thought it best to drop it altogether. 4 
I do not pretend to be accurate as to words but believe that I am right as 
to the substance of what I have stated. It is quite possible that I may hi 
forgotten some things & that I am mistaken in others; & under the press 
of public duties in which I was then engaged it would not be strange if if 
were so; but I give it to you as I have it—wishing only to be excused for , 
confused manner in which it is done, & which the circumstances under which 
I write render almost unavoidable. f ; 
One word more upon this subject. The anxiety of your friends that y 
should not suffer yourself to be drawn into a newspaper controversy 1 
it is intense & universal. They regard it as incompatible with your station & 
uncalled for by anything that has appeared. The time may come when y 
can with propriety say upon the subject what you may deem necessary, 
the discussion of the question, whether your statement or that of the ot 
parties, in regard to the paper having been shown to them, is correct, m 
with entire safety be deferred to that period. That is not the question 
issue—but a mere circumstance; that question is whether you did or did 
attempt to regulate & control their private and social intercourse, & up 
that point how does the case stand? Neither of the gentlemen assert that y 
either made such an attempt in your pensonal interviews with them or ei h 
of them, or that you admitted that you had done so through Col. Johnson, 
he, the only person who can speak to the point, acquits you in the most solemr 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 363 


and emphatic manner of any such act or design. Can a reasonable & enlight- 
ened community require more? I think not. 

The sequel of Major Eaton’s career presented an instructive com- 
mentary on the past and fully justified the opinion I had formed in 
regard to the effect of my resignation in commending him to the 
favor of those by whom he and his had been so unsparingly con- 
demned. His lax political notions, for they could scarcely ever be 
said to have risen to the dignity of opinions, with his easy dis- 
positions in respect to most things, were well calculated to expose 
him to the sinister intrigues of a class of habitual hangers-on at 
the seat of Government, whose business it is to practice upon the 
credulity of public functionaries and to serve, in their way, an 
administration or a party which will countenance, patronize or em- 
ploy them; of course they prefer the party which uses the most 
money and which is most tolerant of politicians of easy virtue. 
When the Democratic party is in power and its representative at 
the head of the government is a democrat in fact as well as in 
name, acting always in the spirit of its simple, just and abstemious 
precepts that the world is governed too much, and that the benefits 
and burdens of °necessary Government should be distributed 
equally and impartially, doctrines favored by farmers and me- 
chanics, who constitute a vast majority of the party,—when he 
duly appreciates his proud position as the Chief Magistrate of a 
Government founded on public virtue, whose duty it is to suppress 
indirections of every description, a wall of separation has always 
stood between this class and the administration. Such was em- 
phatically the case at the time of which we are speaking. Presi- 
dent Jackson’s well understood principles and the struggle in which 
he was engaged with the Bank and with other selfish and corrupt 
interests in the Country served to range that political brother- 
hood unanimously on the side of the opposition to his administra- 
tion. Their attention was forthwith directed towards Major Eaton, 
backed by the arts and appliances which they so well understand, to 
seduce him from the relations in which he had before stood towards 
his party and friends. Their first movement in this direction was 
to cause him to be appointed President of the Ohio and Chesapeake 
Canal Company. This appointment was the more easily obtained 
‘im consequence of the desire of the Company to obtain assistance 
from the Federal Government and their hope of deriving increased 
facilities to that end by the installation of a personal friend of the 
President at the head of their board of directors. But the ground 
taken by General Jackson in regard to the agency of the Federal 
Government in the promotion of internal improvement, which be- 


° ME. IV, p. 10. 


364 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 


came in the end an immovable position upon the subject, soon cu 
off all expectations of that nature. ' 
Major Eaton was not a man of business in any denen The 
qualities neither of his head nor of his heart were such as to give 
value to his superintendence of a concern like that which had bee: 
committed to his charge. Another place was therefore sought for 
his friends—new and old. The extreme sympathy at one time felt in 
his position and fate and in those of his family by General Jackson 
had doubtless been considerably weakened, but the wane of his for- 
tunes was a sufficient motive with the General to befriend him, and 
he, without hesitation, nominated Eaton to the Senate for the office of 
Governor of Florida; and that body, in which the opposition had 
then a majority of ten—the same which rejected the nomination of 
the accomplished and upright Taney, as Secretary of the Treasury, 
by a vote of 28 to 18, and that of Andrew Stevenson, as Minister to 
England,—promptly and without division confirmed the nomination. 
Was it possible that gentlemen who sincerely thought Mrs. Eaton 
unfit for the society of Washington could deem it proper to place he 
at the head of that of one of our territories—certainly not the les 
polished or moral of our communities! Two years afterwards Eaton 
name is again sent to the Senate to represent the Country abroad a 
Envoy Extraordinary & Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court of 
Spain and in the circles of Madrid and again confirmed by the en- 
ate, without a division—a Senate of which Messrs. Clay, Calhoun ar d 
Webster were members. Are not these striking commentaries upon 
the hue and cry that was raised against this couple when they were 
the supposed favorites of Gen. Jackson, and suspected of favoring my 
elevation to the Presidency, whose fate it was after all to bear the 
brunt of their hostility ? a 
I found Major Eaton in possession of the Spanish Mission when I [ 
became President, in 1837, and concluding that the interests of » the 
Country might be promoted by a change I decided to recall hi 
183—, but, desiring to give as unexceptionable a form to the pro 
ing as Deecile I directed the Secretary of State to reply_to an unan- 
swered application for leave to return by giving the permission a: 
for, and by requesting the Minister to fix the period when it w 
be convenient for him to leave his post to the end that I might 
pare to supply his place. He asked that the period might be left to 
his discretion, which was declined, and he returned forthwith. He 
paid me a visit soon after his return and reported himself to me as i 
recalled Minister. I asked whether his description of his position 
was pr ecisely correct, and he said at once that he had no purpose im 
view in thus expressing himself—that it was my right and — 
recall him if I thought the public interest would be thereby advance 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 365 


that he had neither the right nor the disposition to complain of 
steps I had taken to that end—whether they should be considered 
recall or permission to return on his own application. But he had, 
said, suffered a grievance of no ordinary character of which he had 
good reason to complain.- An order had issued, as he stated, from the 
Ste ate Department, purporting to be by my direction, by which he 
he 1d been deprived of the right always enjoyed by our Ministers, to 
draw at their discretion upon our bankers at London, without spe- 
cif authority from the Department, for any sums to which they 
believed themselves entitled from the Government, subject to a settle- 
ment of their accounts under its authority. Of this he complained 
that he had been suddenly deprived, by which a stigma had been 
attached to his credit, and thro’ which he might have been exposed 
to serious embarrassments. I admitted that the order had been issued 
_ by my direction—that its necessity had been shown by the fact that 
one of his predecessors, who was named to him, had overdrawn his 
ount to an extent which would make a suit at law necessary to 
recover the excess,—that the order was general and equally appli- 
% Shc to all our Ministers abroad, and I insisted that it was proper in 
f as their convenience could be easily provided for by seasonable 
lications to the Department of State, and that the only fault was 
omission on the part of Mr. Forsyth to apprise him that the order 
a general one founded on general principles and not on any dis- 
ust of him, and that the necessity of its observance had been pointed 
it by experience. 

With these explanations and accompanying assurances of my 
tire confidence in his integrity he seemed satisfied. I have doubt- 
seen him since (altho’ I have no recollection of the occasion) 
it I have never conversed with him, with this exception, or with 
S. . Eaton, since their return from Spain. His tendency politically 
been for many years in the direction of the opposition, into 
those ranks he gradually fell, and his new associations led to acts 
nd declarations on his part which entirely alienated from him 
s friendship of Gen. Jackson, who silently closed the trouble- 
ome relations that had existed between them by turning to the 
1 the face of his portrait, which hung in the eee room at 
he Hermitage. 


CHAPTER XXVII. 


The following announcement in the “National Intelligencer— 
“On Wednesday last a subscription was handed about for signature 
in the House of Representatives, by the messengers of the House, 
which ran thus: “Proposals for publishing, by subscription, by Duff 
Green, a correspondence between Gen. Andrew Jackson and John 
C. Calhoun, President and Vice President of the United States, on 
the subject of the course of the latter in the deliberations of the 
Cabinet of Mr. Monroe, on the occurrences in the Seminole War. 
52 pages; price six dollars a hundred”—heralded the approach of 
the quarrel which broke out in 1831 between Calhoun, Jackson, 
Crawford and others and which produced unparalleled excitement 
in the public mind. d 

Professing to act strictly on the defensive, Mr. Calhoun solemnh y 
invoked the protection of his constituents, the People of the United 
States, against the injustice which he claimnaa to have suffered from 
the impeachment by President Jackson of his official acts in one of 
the most important occasions of his life. By the same appeal he 
called for their indignant condemnation of a plot which he under- 
took to lay bare and which he said had been devised for his destrue 
tion by William H. Crawford, and others acting thro’ him, and 
which he regarded as a part of the same movement. Gen. Jackson 
was in terms excluded from an intentional participation in the plot, 
and Mr. Crawford’s agency, tho’ alleged to have been great, was, 
on account of his misfortunes and physical infirmity, referred tc 
more in sorrow than in anger. The whole affair was presented 
by Mr. Calhoun as “a political manoeuvre, in which the design was 
that he (Gen. Jackson) should be the instrument, and himself (Cal- 
houn) the victim, but in which the real actors were carefully con- 
cealed by an artful movement,” and against these he professed 
direct his greatest resentments. 

The “real actors” thus spoken of were not named, but such views 
were presented of the transactions complained of as to leave no doubt, 
and it was intended to leave none, that he referred to me not only as 
principal “actor” in it but as the individual for whose benefit the 
plot had been devised. 

Of this exposé and of the transactions which it professes to describe 
it becomes my duty to speak in so far as they may be supposed te 
have had a bearing upon my own acts. The questions put at issue 

366 a 


q 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 367 


etween Gen. Jackson and Mr. Calhoun as to what Mr. Calhoun’s 
@ in respect to the General, in Mr. Monroe’s Cabinet, really was, 
and whether it was justifiable or otherwise, were discussed, in part, 
in the life time of the parties. In his last letter to Mr. Calhoun, of 
the correspondence here referred to, the General said, “In your and 
Mr. Crawford’s dispute I have no -interest pier but it may 
become necessary hereafter, when I shall have more leisure and the 


vill give a very different view to the subject * * * Understand- 
you now no further communication with you is necessary.” He 
lef behind him an “ exposition ” of the whole affair, a document of 
sonsiderable length and great power, which, with a brief statement 
“of the circumstances under which it is there published, will be found 
m Benton’s Thirty Year's View, vol. 1, p. 169. My own case stands 
pon a different footing. The “Card” published by me a few days 
ter the appearance of Mr. Calhoun’s appeal is the only publication 
om me upon the subject heretofore; pursuing in that instance the 
urse Which I have always preferred, that of living down calumnies 
supported by proof, instead of attempting to write them down. 
ho’ not aware that I have, upon the whole, suffered from its adop- 
n on that occasion, it is, of course, palpable that a sketch of my 
e would be incomplete if ° it included no more extended notice of 
subject on which I was widely and violently assailed than I chose 
take of it when the phrensy and prejudices of the hour were 
avorable to its candid and dispassionate examination. 
I pass by the letter from Mr. Crawford to Mr. Balch? of the 14th 
December, 1827, advising opposition to Mr. Calhoun’s election as 
"View President, as solely intended to bring into view the fact that 
: Mr. Cambreleng * and myself, in our trip to the South, in the spring 
: of that year, visited Mr. econ at his home in Georgia. That 
was certainly not necessary to establish the fact that hostile 
lations then existed between Calhoun and Crawford, for that was 
atter known to the whole Country and equally notorious were the 
ts of the latter to prevent the support of the former on the same 
st with Gen. Jackson; still less could it be of'use to implicate 
in Crawford’s opposition to Calhoun, as my svpport of him, was, 
rever I was myself known, as notorious as the fact of his elec- 
and to none was it better known than to himself and by none 
: highly appreciated. It was not referred to for the purpose of 
ne Mr. Crawford, for all desire to do SO, as well 2 as esa 


| °MS. IV, p. 15, 1 Alfred Balch of Nashville. 2 Churchill C, Cambreleng. 


368 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. oe ae 


is treated as a man hors de combat. But to make me chiefly respe 
sible for all the grievances complained of, for what was done as - 
by Mr. Crawford, who is brought forward as the first, altho’ not 
principal actor in the drama, as by all the minor performers, m 
visit to him, at that time, at his remote residence in Georgia, w 
circumstance too portentous to be overlooked in the preparation of a 2 
impeachment which was, of necessity, to he made of shreds and 
patches. Recollecting the fact of his opposing the support of Mr, 
Calhoun at that time, I have referred to Mr. Crawford’s letters an 
find one, which if not necessary for any other purpose, will shey 
that I held the same language to Mr. Calhoun’s enemies in Georgi 
and South Carolina that I held at home. In this letter, dated Dee 
21st, 1827, a week after his letter to Balch, he says: “Soon after 
you left Gen. Williams—(Gen. David R. Williams, of South Car 
lina, one of the most distinguished men of that- State, but an eark 
and consistent opponent of Mr. Calhoun,)—last spring, I received 2 
letter from him thanking me for my supposed influence in procuring 
him the pleasure of a visit from you. In that letter he expres 
much pleasure with the visit, but he expressed regret that you : ap 
peared to him disposed to let Mr. Calhoun resale present posi- 
tion.” Of that, not disposition only but determination, so far as re 
lated to my own action, Mr. Crawford was himself also explici 
and definitely informed by me in reply to a letter from him t 
me to support Mr. Macon, of North Carolina. 
The following narrative will, I think, present a fair view of t] 
remainder of the case upon which Mr. Calhoun predicated his gray 
charges. In respect to facts there is little room for mistake, as the} 
are principally derived from original papers published at the time 
for motives we must rely on the declarations of the parties tote 
natural inferences from acknowledged facts. ~ 
James A. Hamilton, Esq. of New York, at the time my pet a ni 
and political friend, was appointed by ae Tammany Society one } 
the Delegates to represent that Society at the celebration of th 
Eighth of January in New Orleans, at which Gen. Jackson (was ob 
present. He accompanied the General and his suite to that city, an 
informs us that'on their way down there was much conversati 
among them in respect to the charges which had been made at # 
preceding election against the General and which were or might t 
revived in the canvass then in progress; and amongst other matter 
as to the course. pursued against him by Mr. Crawford, in Mr. Moi 
roe’s Cabinet, on the question of Gen. Jackson’s conduct in the Sem 
nole War, and on the proposition supposed to have been then made 
arrest him. Mr. Hamilton says that an attack upon the General 
upon that point, was anticipated and as it was understood that 1 
intended to pass thro’ Georgia on his return and to visit Mr. Cra 


i 
hen 


a 
A 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 369 


ford he either was asked by Major Lewis or he offered to ascertain 
truly what passed in the Cabinet on the occasion and upon the point 
referred to, and to inform him (Lewis) of the result. The motives 
for this step, he says, were to enable the General’s friends to repel 
the attack if made, “ but, above all, if possible, to produce a perfect 
_ reconciliation between those gentlemen (Jackson and Crawford) and 
their friends.” 
‘. Finding it inconvenient, on reaching Georgia, to visit Mr. Craw- 
_ tord, he wrote to Mr. Forsyth, asking him to obtain the desired infor- 
_ mation and to send it to him at New York. He kept no copy of this 
_ letter, but it was subsequently produced and published by Mr. For- 
4 zr. As this was the opening movement in the supposed conspiracy 
_ it deserves a more particular notice. After mentioning his intention 
_to have paid Mr. Crawford a visit and his regret at not having been 
- able to do so, he said: 
| I wish you would ascertain from him and communicate to me whether the 
_ propriety or necessity for arresting or trying Gen. Jackson was ever presented 
as a question for the deliberation of Mr. Monroe’s Cabinet. I understand Mr. 
Southard (who was a member of the Cabinet) in his suppressed correspond- 
ence has asserted that to have been the fact. I want the information, not to 
be used, but in order that I may in the event of a publication, which may 
d come from a high quarter, know where to look for information on this subject. 
_ Of course nothing would be published without the consent of Mr. Crawford 
and yourself. 
This was the whole letter. 
No question was asked in regard to what Mr. Crawford had done 
or what Mr. Calhoun had done and none which was calculated to 
‘draw out a comparison between their respective acts. It would 
‘not have been an easy matter, it strikes me, to have framed a letter 
which would, on its face, have been more in harmony with a bona 
fide prosecution of the professed object of the enquiry, viz: to en- 
able the friends of Gen. Jackson to repel an attack on him by Mr. 
Southard charging that he had stood in the attitude described be- 
fore Mr. Monroe’s Cabinet and had been, perhaps, suffered to escape 
_ thro’ the forbearance of its members. Mr. Hamilton took Washing- 
_ton on his way home and staid for a day or two at the same house 
_ with Mr. Calhoun, and being anxious to obtain the information 
* had thus far failed to get from Mr. Crawford, he requested an 
interview with the former at which he asked him “whether, at any 
meeting of Mr. Monroe’s Cabinet, the propriety of arresting Gen. 
Jackson for anything done by him during the Seminole war had 
been discussed.” Mr. Calhoun replied “ Never!—such a measure 
was never thought of, much less discussed. The only point before 
the Cabinet was the answer to be given to the Spanish Government.” 
On being further asked whether he desired that his answer should be 
127483°—vor 2—20—— 24 


orn e. 


! 
: 


> 


7" 


870 - AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. a = 


regarded as confidential he said that he did not. Mr. Hamiltan 
says that at that time he had not the slightest knowledge of the 
course Mr. Calhoun had considered it his duty to pursue in © 
Cabinet on the occasion referred to, and that his ae re- 
ceived from the conversations of which he had spoken were that 
Mr. Calhoun had been in favor of, and Mr. Crawford adverse to 
Gen. Jackson. The perfect similarity in substance, and bearing, of 
the question put to Mr. Calhoun to that proposed to Mr. Crawford, 
through Mr. Forsyth, cannot fail to be perceived. 4 
Hamilton left Washington on the following morning and on . 
19th of February, 1828, being the second day after his arrival at 
New York, he wrote a letter to Major Lewis of which the followin 
Was given as an extract—the letter having been tendered but never : 
called for or produced: 
“JT did not see Mr. Crawford, as I intended to do, because his 
residence was seventy miles out ef my way; but the Vice President 
(Mr. Calhoun), who, you know, was the member of the Cabinet 
best acquainted with the subject, told me Gen. Jackson’s arrest w: 
never thought of, much less discussed.” 'To this letter he receiv 
a reply from Major Lewis in which he said—‘I regret that y 
did not see Mr. Crawford. I was desirous you should see him and 
converse with him on the subject of his former misunderstandi 
with the General. I have every reason to believe that the inform 
tion given to you by Calhoun is correct, for Mr. Monroe assu 
me, nearly nine years ago, such was the fact. It follows then th 
Mr. Crawford must have been vilely slandered by those whose ¢ 
ject was to fan a flame their interest required should not be ex- 
tinguished.” All still in harmony with the professed objects of the 
enquiry, viz; to be able to repel the charge referred to, if made, and 
to conciliate still further the friends of Mr. Crawford who, w 
they were most numerous, in Virginia, North and South Caroline 
and New York, had already taken ground in favor of Gen. J: ackson 
Believing that the information might become useful at Nashville 
where almost every day produced a new charge against the General 
Hamilton, on the 25th of February, wrote to Mr. Calhoun, setti 
forth what had passed at their interview, as I° have already stated 
it. telling him that he was thus particular in seeking to obtain his 
confirmation of it to enable him to confirm Major Lewis, a 
dential friend of Gen, Jackson, of its truth; not with a vie 
enable him to make a publication on the subject but to be prep: 
to repel an apprehended attack founded on events connected 
the Seminole campaign. On the 28th of February he received a 
letter from Mr. Forsyth, in reply to the one he had ie: 
him from Savannah, in which Mr. F. informed ee that Mr. Cra 


oo MSWVs bp. 20; 


pe AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 3871 


ford had been a few hours on the previous day at Milledgeville, the 
place of Mr. Forsyth’s residence, that he had conversed with him 
m the subject referred to in Hamilton’s letter, and was authorized 
y—‘ that at a meeting of Mr. Monroe’s Cabinet to discuss the 
ourse to be pursued towards Spain, in consequence of Gen. Jack- 
son’s proceedings in Florida during the Seminole War, Mr. Calhoun, 


is intention to present the question to Mr. Monroe; an intention 
Mr. Crawford approved” (Mr. Crawford subsequently corrected 
this statement by saying that Mr. Forsyth had misunderstood him— 
that Mr. Calhoun’s proposition in the Cabinet was that Gen. Jackson 
should be punished in some form or reprimanded in some form, 
was not positively certain which: as Mr. Calhoun did not propose 
arrest Gen. Jackson he felt confident that he could not have made 
use of that expression in his conversation with Mr. Forsyth. 
_ After the receipt of Mr. Forsyth’s letter he (Hamilton) received 
r. Calhoun’s reply to his letter of the 25th of February. This 
ply was dated March 29th and said that as Mr. Hamilton had 
at the time of their interview, stated the object of his enquiry 
iad supposed it was designed only to meet mere general rumour 
ely put out to influence the result of the Presidential election; 
his answer had been predicated on such an assumption, was 
aded to meet assertions unsupported by any name in the same 
general manner without name and to be limited, even with that 
view, to a denial of what was falsely stated to have occurred on that 
occasion. Mr. Calhoun then repeated Hamilton’s object as stated 
| in his letter of the 25th of February, and said that he had, under 
_ that aspect of the subject, deliberately considered how far he could, 
with propriety, speak of the proceedings of the Cabinet at all and 
| had come to the conclusion that a duty of a very high and delicate 
character imposed silence upon him; that entertaining such views 
| he declined the introduction of his name in any shape as con- 
| nected with what passed in the Cabinet on the occasion referred to. 
‘To this Hamilton answered on the 10th of March, that Mr. Cal- 
‘houn’s reasoning as to the confidence which ought to be observed 
in regard to occurrences in the Cabinet was clear and conclusive, 
that he had written to Major Lewis, that day, that his (Mr. 
lhoun’s) name should not be used in any manner with the denial, 
Id a publication be called for, which he did not believe to be 
case,—adding that the subject had derived increasing interest 
@ communication he had received since he had written to Mr. 
houn. This brought a reply from Mr. Calhoun in which he 
| said that it had appeared to him desirable, on several accounts. that 


372 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


A 
—- 


if an attack on Gen. Jackson was meditated, in the manner sup 
posed, he (Mr, Calhoun) should be put in possession of the fac 
from which it was inferred: that his knowledge of the facts migh 
enable him to ascertain from what quarter the blow might be ex- 
pected and to take measures to parry it: that if he (Hamilton) 
should concur in that view and felt himself at liberty to communi 
cate what he knew it might ultimately prove serviceable to the cause 
and should be received in strict confidence. Hamilton replied, o1 
the 26th March, that he regretted to say that he did not feel him: 
self at liberty to disclose what he knew of the matter referred to i 
Mr. Calhoun’s letter, that the information he had received was me 
declared to be pe eisceast nor was it necessarily so, yet, as it was 
communicated to him only because he could be instrumental in ob 
taining the means of resistance, having done so he felt that he ough 
to consider himself as no longer in possession of it. Having in goo¢ 
faith pursued thus far the business he had undertaken to perform 
and which, I am confident, had no other aims than those which wer 
professed, Hamilton’s eyes were opened by the contents of Forsyth’ 
letter and by the abrupt closing of the door to further disclosure 
by Mr. Calhoun, upon a subject in respect to which he had before 
been so ready to speak and so unreserved in his answers, to th 
depth of the waters into which he was plunging and the sti ing 
character of the investigation he had entered upon and to an appre e 
ciation of the troubles to which he might expose himself by a wisl 
to make himself useful to a cause in niniel he had become suddenk 
conspicuous and perhaps somewhat by a passion, not uncommodl 
with young men, to take part in important and exciting publi 
transactions in which the prominent actors are the most distin 
guished men of their day; and he decided to draw off. Hence hi 
ready acquiescence in Mr. Calhoun’s reasons against the propriety ¢ 
answering a question which he had just before put to Mr. Crawford ; 
standing See in the same situation, and his instructions t 
Major Lewis not to use Mr. Calhoun’s name in any form touch Q 
the matter. His steps were well directed to the end he now aime 
at, if we except the intimation to Mr. Calhoun that he was in pé 
session of a further communication which had given to the whol 
matter a deeper interest, which produced in the latter an anxiety 
learn the character of that communication; his decision to disél 
tangle himself was a wise one and if he had acted upon it from th 
spring of 1828 till the autumn of 1829, during which pena M 
Forsyth’s letter remained on his own alee and was not, as he sa} 
shown to any body, he would have saved himself much anil 
his friends much trouble. 4 

In the fall of the latter year, however, eighteen monthe after Fo 
syth’s letter had been written and when the subject had substal in 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 373 


ially passed from the minds of all who had taken a part in it, he 
d that letter to Major Lewis at his own house in New York. But 
en this step would in all probability have produced no disturbing 
ults had the principal parties remained in their original position 
jowards each other which was very far from the case, the friendly 
ations which had existed between Gen. Jackson and Mr. Calhoun 
javing been by that time seriously impaired through the agency of 
the Eaton imbroglio, and giving place soon after to open hostility. It 
‘was not probably until the latter period that Lewis, who sympathized 
in the General’s feelings throughout, informed him of the contents 
of Forsyth’s letter, and this was, I verily believe, the first reliable 
information he had ever received as to Mr. Calhoun’s precise course 
“in Mr. Monroe’s Cabinet in regard to his conduct in Florida—a sub- 
a on which the General’s feelings were always keenly sensitive. 
He had never before even suspected that that course had been hostile 
to him. Hamilton says that he became acquainted with the contents 
of the letter but does not say how. My statement that it was com- 
“municated by Major Lewis is an inference only, but I have no doubt 
that it is a just one, and that the Major would, without hesitation, 
confirm it. Of course, General Jackson demanded to see the letter. 
3 le would have done so if he and Mr. Calhoun had remained friends, 
-and was less likely to omit it under their hostile relations. This 
“was in the month of May, 1830, more than two years after the pro- 
ceedings of which we have been speaking had taken place and until 
‘that time I had never received the slightest intimation, from any 
source, of their occurrence. It was after Gen. Jackson had demand- 
ed a sight of Forsyth’s letter that Hamilton for the first time gave 
me a general statement of its contents as the ground of a request 
for my advice in regard to the answer he should make to the Gen- 
eral’s application. I instantly decided to have nothing to do with 
the affair and declined to express my opinion upon the question he 
submitted to me. He then applied to Mr. Forsyth to give to the 
President directly the information that he (Forsyth) had commu- 
nicated to him in the letter referred to. Mr. Forsyth was not a 
friend of Mr. Calhoun—none of Mr. Crawford’s friends in Georgia 
stood in that relation towards him; the feuds between the chiefs had 
been of too long standing and too bitter to admit of very friendly 
feelings between their respective adherents; but he was a man of 
truth and honor unquestioned by Mr. Caihoun or by any other. This 
is his account, given in February, 1831, of what passed in respect to 
| Hamilton’s application: 

A word or two of explanation, in the further agency I have had in this 
affair, is justly due to Mr. Crawford. I heard nothing of my correspondence 
ka Major Hamilton, and the subject was scarcely thought of until during 


: 
2 


Fa 


374 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. = 


last winter that gentleman came to the Senate Chamber, and requested mi 
give to the President, if not improper in my judgment, the information I 
given to him. I asked him if he° had not my letter. He answered that 
had. I then said Mr. Crawford spoke to me and speaks to everybody of 
affair, with the same indifference that he does of every other incident in his 
political life. I am sure he does not care what you do with the letter. You 
may give the President a copy of it. Major Hamilton declined doing so fro 
a motive of delicacy. He stated that he had conversed, or corresponded, I 
not recollect which, with Mr. Calhoun on this subject, and that the statements 
of Mr. Crawford and Mr. Calhoun did not agree. He was, therefore, uny 
ing to interfere, further than to comply with the President’s wish in asking of 
me the information. On this statement I was determined not to give the 
information without Mr. Crawford’s express assent. The information was no 
longer a matter of indifference, and I did not choose to give it to the Preside! 
without apprising Mr. Crawford that he and Mr. Calhoun differed in t 
account of the transaction and without submitting to him my statement of 
conversation for correction, if it was, in any respect, erroneous. I obtained 
for that purpose, and enclosed to him a copy of my letter to Major Hamilton. 
His answer is before the public. I found, to my surprise, that I had erred i 
repeating what he had said, and to avoid the possibility of any other mista 
I deemed it safest to send to the President a copy of my letter to Major 
Hamilton and Mr. Crawford’s letter to me. In making this communication 
from respect to the personal dons of Major Hamilton, his name was kep 
out of view. 4 


On the 12% May 1830, Mr. Forsyth delivered to the President botl 
of the letters spoken of by him, viz: that from him to Mr. Hamil 
of the 8 Feb. 1828, and that to him from Mr. Crawford, of the 
April, 1830, containing Mr. C’s account of what was done in Mi 
Monroe’s Cabinet in respect to Gen. Jackson’s conduct in the Sem 
nole War, and which was given in Mr. Calhoun’s appeal. This 
ter was on the following day sent by Gen. Jackson to Mr. Calhour 
inclosed with the following :* 

j May 13; 1830, 
Sir: i 
That frankness which I trust has always characterized me through lif 
towards those with whom I have been in the habit of friendship, induces me a 
lay before you the enclosed copy of a letter from William H. Crawford 
which was placed in my hands on yesterday. The submission you will pe 
is authorized by the writer. The statements & facts it presents being 
ferent from what I had heretofore understood to be correct, requires t 
should be brought to your consideration. They are different from your 
to Governor Bibb, of the 13th. May, 1818, where you state “ General Jac 
vested with full power to conduct the war in the manner he may judge b 
and different too from your letter to me at that time which breathed throug 
a spirit of approbation & friendship, & particularly the one in which you 
“J have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 20th. ull 
and to acquaint you with the entire approbation of the President of all 


°MS. IV, p. 25. 
1 Calhoun’s answer dated May 13, 1830, is in the Jackson Papers. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 375 


es you have adopted to terminate the rupture with the Indians.” My 
in making this communication is to announce to you the great surprise 
ch is felt & to learn of you whether it be possible that the information given 
ect; whether it can be under all the circumstances of which you & I 
both informed, that any attempt seriously to affect me was moved & sus- 
lined by you in the cabinét council, when, as is known to you, I was but 
cuting the wishes of the Government, and clothed with the authority “to 
duct the war in the manner I might judge best.” 


‘ou can, if you please, take a copy; the one enclosed you will please return 


I am, Sir, very respectfully, your humble servant, 


ANDREW JACKSON. 
‘The Hon. J. C. Carnoun. 


The enquiry and the only enquiry made of Mr. Calhoun by this 
er was whether any attempt seriously to affect Gen. Jackson was 
yed and sustained by him in the Cabinet council of Mr. Monroe. 
the General had stopped here the course pursued by Mr. Calhoun 
reply might well have been regarded as an uncalled for extension 
the matter in controversy, designed as was alleged by Mr. Craw- 
to get rid of a fact which he could not frankly and distinctly 
by attempting to prove a negative by argument. But the let- 
went further and claimed that the acts referred to were justified 
instruction received from the War Department, at the head of 
ich Mr. Calhoun then stood, and approved by the President. Mr. 
houn was thus invited if not necessarily called to the considera- 
n and discussion of so much of the acts of the War Department 
_the President as was claimed by Gen. Jackson to have con- 
red upon him authority to capture and hold for a season the 
ish Posts in Florida if he should think it necessary to the pro- 
fion of the frontier and of our people against the inroads of 
idians. He at least considered such to be the position in which 
: was placed by the General’s letter, and undertook in an elaborate 
reply, covering many sheets, extracts included, to prove that the 
neral’s orders did not authorize the occupation by him of St. 
ks and Pensacola, taking in those respects the ground that had 
ays been taken by Crawford, his friends, and the opposition in 
mgress, and also that the General had, at the time, been fully 
rmed that such were his views of the matter. He answered 
e General’s specific enquiry in the following terms :— 
Secretary of War I was more immediately connected with questions 
er you had transcended your orders, and, if so, what course ought to be 
sued. I was of the impression that you had exceeded your orders and had 
ed.on your own responsibility; but I neither questioned your patriotism 
your motives. Believing that, where orders were transcended, investiga- 
as a matter of course, ought to follow, as due in justice to the government 
the officer, unless there be strong reasons to the contrary, I came to the 
og under the impression that the usual course ought to be pursued in this 


376 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. ia q 


case, which I supported by: presenting fully and freely all the arguments © 
occurred to me.* 

This altho’ rendered a little less harsh by the lange enploall 
amounted, in substance, to an admission of the correctness of Mr. 
Crawford’s statement—as punishment of some sort would, in the 
usual course, follow conviction. Cranford baid, “Mr. Calhoun’s 
proposition in the Cabinet was that Gen. Jackson should be pun- 
ished in some form, or reprimanded in some form, I am not posi: 
tively certain which.” The General’s question was therefore answered, 
and was, doubtless, intended to be understood as answered affirma- 3 
tively. Mr. Calhoun’s reply was, I think, sent to the President on 
the evening before the eae of Congress, in May, 1830. The 
first I saw of it was on the day of the adjournment. After my return 
from the Capitol with the President and the other members of the 
Cabinet, who are usually in attendance on the last day of the session, 
Major Lewis came to my house and laid upon the table at which I was 
sitting a file of papers, saying “ There is Calhoun’s letter. The Gent 
eral begs you to read the papers attentively and when you have had 
time to do so he will be glad to see and advise with you upon’ the 
subject.” Hamilton having, as I have stated, apprised me of th 
general bearing of the correspondence, I real no time to refle 
upon my answer to this application. I told the Major that I was 
quite sure the General would not have sent the papers to me if hy 
had reflected on the impropriety of my taking a part in any coma 0- 
versy between himself and Mr. Calhoun and on its liability to mis 
interpretation, and apprising him of the answer I had given to Ham ; 
ton, requested him to take them back and to report what I had sa G 
to the General. He did so, and the General embraced an early oppo 
tunity to assure me that 7 was altogether right, and apologized ve: 

earnestly for what he called his “ carelessness” in the matter. He 
sent a brief reply to Mr. Calhoun, of which I have given the sub ce 
in the introduction to this review, but which I did not see, neithet 
was I apprised of its contents until the appearance of Mr. Calhoun’s 
pamphlet.? j 

There the matter rested until the next winter. The gossips © 
Washington got hold of the fact that there had been a corresp id 
ence and some of the newspapers gave loose and contradic 
accounts of its contents. Mr. Calhoun did not arrive at Washin 
until some weeks of the following session of Congress had elaj 
Attempts were subsequently made (and perhaps before) by ge 


1 This letter, dated May 29, 1830, an A. L. S. of Calhoun’s, is 48 pp. long. It is in the 
Jackson Papers. 1 
2 Correspondence between Gen. Andrew Jackson ari John C. Calhoun via 0 
subject of the course of the latter, in the cabinet of Mr. Monroe, on the occurrences _ 
Seminole War. Wasbn. Printed by D. Green, 1831. A copy is in the Library of Congress. 


¥ 


- AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. and 


nen who claimed to be friends of both the President and Vice Presi- 
dent to bring about a reconciliation between them. Mr. Samuel 
wartwout was particularly active in that direction. Gen. Jackson 
pprised me of those efforts and I advised him, earnestly and sin- 
 eerely, to consent to any amicable arrangement of the subject that 
would be consistent with his honor. I was°® sitting with him, one 
day, in one of the rooms of the White House which had been appro- 

_priated as a studio by his friend Col. Earle, who was painting his 

¥ portrait, when a servant announced that Mr. Swartwout was in his 

_ office and requested to see him for a moment. He went out and, on his 

‘return, told me that the whole affair was settled. He gave me the 

substance of the terms, but my recollection upon the subject is not 

distinct enough to justify me in undertaking to state them. I 

expressed my gratification at the result. He did not appear entirely 

“satisfied with what he had agreed to, but said the matter was done 

_with and he would think no more about it. 

_ The adjustment of the whole affair, was for several days pub- 
icly spoken of. Information of the fact was communicated to 
persons out of the city and I received letters in which the pacifica- 

- tion was spoken of as undisputed. But Mr. Calhoun’s publication 

| appeared notwithstanding. No explanation of the failure of the 
negotiation has, to my knowledge, been given on either side. Two 

) attempts were subsequently made—the last immediately before Mr. 

_ Calhoun’s ‘ appeal’ appeared—to give that paper a character and 

' to have it published in a way which would be satisfactory to Gen. 

| Jackson and to prevent him from replying to or taking any notice 
of its contents. Col. Richard M. Johnson and Senator Grundy, 

recognised and warm friends of Mr. Calhoun, as they were also of 

Gen. Jackson’s called (as he now informs me) on Mr. F. P. Blair, 

with whom they enjoyed a cordial intimacy, and whose feelings 

were then personally favorable to Mr. Calhoun, and made a labored 

‘effort to persuade him to publish it in the Globe with comments 

indicating that it was neither in fact, nor in intention an attack 

upon Gen. Jackson. He resisted their solicitations to the end, in- 
sisting that the paper could not be so qualified as to avoid a rupture 

‘with the General which must be the ruin of Mr. Calhoun. Mr. 

Blair does not now recollect whether any, or, if any, what com- 

munications took place between him and General Jackson in respect 

to the proposition, or whether, indeed, he was permitted to talk 
to him on the subject. Failing in this overture a negotiation of 
the same character was instituted by Mr. Grundy with Major Eaton, 

‘whose interest in a general pacification need not be enlarged upon. 


3 


° MS. IV, p. 30. 


ae a ee 
nas 
. 


378 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, aoe 


Its character and results are fully set forth in th following put 
cation :— 


[From “the Globe” of March 26, 1831.] 


[We have been favored with the following communication from the Secr 
tary of War, which will show the groundlessness of the intimation convey 
by a late Telegraph (newspaper) that the intimate friends of Gen. Jackson 3 
if not the General himself, were satisfied with Mr. Calhoun’s mike &e., 
before it appeared in public.] : 

Recently it had been stated in the U. S. Telegraph, that the axel of Mr. 
Calhoun to the public, previous to its publication, had been submitted to and 
approved by a confidential friend of the President. The allusion is to myaelil 
I perceive not the force of the argument which would make this circumstance 
to operate beneficially or otherwise; but as it has been mentioned, I take 
occasion to present the agency particularly that I had in this business, and 
how and why it was occasioned. 4 

Previous to the publication being made I received a request from Mr. Grun di v 
to see me. I afforded him the interview he sought. He informed me the 
Vice President had concluded certainly to make publication of the correspon- 
dence; and that his (Mr. Grundy’s) great anxiety was that the appeal in- 
tended to accompany it should be so framed as that the President might not 
feel himself called upon, by any thing it should contain, to offer a reply. If 

- the President should adopt this course he entertained the opinion that the 
matter would soon pass away, and every thing of party excitement be avoided. 
Such was the nature of our conversation and I ade accorded with him 
in his frank desire. } 

Mr. Grundy expressed the opinion that it would be in his power to obtain 
the assent of the Vice President to show me the remarks which Mr. Calhoun 
intended to present to the public. Shortly after dark the next evening I went 
to his lodgings. Arriving, I was told by the servant at the door that Mr. 
Grundy was not at home but had gone to Mr. Ingham’s. I directed him to go 
there and say that I wished to see him. He soon returned, and shortly after- 
wards Mr. Grundy came in, and we sat down together, and alone, in his bed 
room. 

He observed it had been permitted to him to show me the paper of which 
he had before spoken; and after some cursory remarks, such as he thought 
it would now do, and that I would, as he read it, note any exception which I 
might consider exceptionable, proceeded to read it. Whenever a rema 
occurred which I thought calculated to excite, or which, by possibility, m 
be misconceived, I offered suggestions agreeably to the invitation which M 
Grundy had tendered; of all which he made notes. I kept none myself 
hence cannot say that all were adopted. I do not doubt about it however, 
as Mr. Grundy afterwards informed me that they had been adopted. 

Having read through the appeal, Mr. Grundy observed, “ Well, if the st 
gestions and illustrations we have made, shall be approved, do you think #] 
President will feel himself called upon to reply, or to notice, himself, 
thing that the appeal contains?” My answer was, I thought not, and my a 
ious desire was. that he would not; but without doubt the newspapers wou 
take hold of and canvass the matter, ond to what a course of that kind in) 
end might lead, time only could determine. 

We were about to separate when Mr. Grundy observed,—Will you see ¢ 
Jackson and explain to him what has taken place? I will see Mr. Calho un, 
and if the course we have taken be approved you shall be informed.” But I 


- 


_--——s AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 379 


ot communicate the subject to the President. because, upon reflection, I 
it improper to do so. From Mr. Grundy I received a note the next 
lay, stating that all was right, which I understood to mean that the sugges- 
Hons offered had been adopted. 
he evening preceding the day when the correspondence made its appear- 
ince, a printed copy was enclosed to me, with a request that I would submit 
at too to the President. This also I declined to do. 
‘Ill health has prevented me from making this communication earlier. 
_ That the accuracy of this statement was assented to by Mr. Grundy 
necessarily results from the relation in which they both stood to- 
wards Gen. Jackson and from the facts that Mr. Grundy was on 
the spot at the time it was made and that he did not question it. It 
is further confirmed by the declaration of Mr. Ingham, in his ad- 
dress to the President, of July 26, 1831, that “the preface to the cor- 
pondence” (which was the ‘appeal’) “had been previously re- 
ed by the President’s particular friend, and every expression 
which he thought might be personally offensive to the President had 
heen erased at the suggestion of that friend.” Mr. Grundy, having 
informed Major Eaton the next day, by note, “that all was right” 
by which the latter understood that the suggestions offered had been 
opted, and hearing nothing to the contrary, inferred, of course, 
1 the Major had carried into effect the arrangement made between 
sm and that the General had assented to it. 
This inference, which no steps on the part of Eaton counteracted, 
was confirmed by the circumstance that a copy of the pamphlet 
was sent to him the evening before it was issued to the public to 
laid before the President, so that the latter might read it before 
it came out, of which also Eaton took notice. He does not say 
yho sent it, but it is not to be supposed that it would have been 
sent without the approbation of Mr. Calhoun, or under any 
impression than that the arrangement had been found satis- 
y and acceptable to Gen. Jackson. That the ‘appeal’ was 
red to the people under a full belief that such was the real 
te of the case it is impossible to doubt, and conversant as I was 
th the then condition of things as affecting that point I can 
‘y well conceive that, but for that mistake, and the publication 
h was its first consequence, Mr. Calhoun might have been * 
ed to the Presidency. If the terms of the settlement, which 
through in his hands, were of the character described by Mr. 
oun’s confidential and most efficient friend, in the address 
ready referred to, (and of that I can now say nothing with 
ainty) viz: that the correspondence was to be destroyed, that 
Calhoun was to leave his card for the President; to be invited 
his table and no further notice was to be taken of the contro- 
y, every thing would have tended, in all probability, to that 


380 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. a 
result. It was a strong feature in Gen. Jackson’s nature that an 
interest in the welfare, and a desire to be instrumental in pro- 
moting it, of those with whom he had ‘been at variance quickly 
sprung up in his breast upon an amicable adjustment of differences. 
My own feelings at that time in respect to the succession, of which 
I will speak more particularly hereafter, would have interposed 
no obstacles to Mr. Calhoun’s advancement if that had become the — 
wish of our party. On finding, as he would have found® that I~ 
had no more to do with the proceedings of which he complained 
than the man in the moon, the friendly relations that had arisen | 
between us before the election would have been restored and I see 
no good reason to doubt that the end which I have intimated would — 
have resulted. But unfounded jealousy and consequent ill will 
towards myself, with bad advisers, decreed otherwise. 
The direct consequence of the success of the Grundy and Eaton 
arrangement would have been to throw the brunt of the war-——where ~ 
it was, from a very early period, if not from the first conception of 
the ‘ plot,’ intended that it should fall ultimately,—on my shoulders. 
No man of sense, familiar with the characters and events of that day, — 
can read Mr. Calhoun’s ‘ appeal,’ and its supplements, without per- 
ceiving the two principal objects of its construction—viz: self excul- 
pation in the matter of his course in Mr. Monroe’s Cabinet towards” 
Gen. Jackson—now for the first time made known to the latter—and 
the implication of myself in a plot from which I could not escape 
and for really engaging in which I would have deserved the political” 
destruction prepared for me. Altho’ my name was carefully and 
with some manifest labour kept out of both the ‘appeal’ and its 
addenda, yet the fact of its being aimed at me was conveyed without 
the possibility of failure to the apprehension of the political reader. 
When speculation had been suffered to work upon it for a season the 
Editor of the Zelegraph, with well painted horror, disclosed the 
secret (!) as to the intended application of the reference to “con- 
cealed actors.” In the copy of the letter from Mr. Crawford to Mr. 
Forsyth, which was sent by the latter to the President, and by him 
_ enclosed to Mr. Calhoun, blank spaces were in two or three instances 
substituted, for a name, (as Mr. ;) which substitution was sub- 
sequently explained, thus by Mr. Forsyth, as heretofore quoted,— 
“from respect to the personal delicacy of Major Hamilton his name 
was kept out of view.” But the eagerness and energy with which 
Mr. Calhoun, under the influenze of his passions, seized upon these 
luckless blanks would have been amusing, if the distortions of a really 
great mind could be thus ever regarded. He referred to Mr. Craw- 
ford’s letter sent to him by Gen. Jackson as “a copy with important 


‘°° MS. IV, p. 35. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 381 


blanks” demanded by what rule of justice he was deprived of evi- 
dence material to his defense—of a statement of the conversation and 
correspondence of the two individuals whose names are in blank”: — 
“Why not” said he “inform me who they are? Their econ 
“might be highly important, and even their names alone (so italicised 
in the original) might throw much light on this mysterious affair.” 
2 Again “this whole affair is a political manoeuvre in which the de- 
_ sign is that you (Gen. Jackson) should be the instrument and my- 
: self the victim, but in which the real actors are carefully concealed 
by an artful movement; a naked copy, with the names referred to in 
£ blank, affords slender means of detection, * * * the names which 
_ are in blank might of themselves through their political associations 
_ point directly to the contrivers of this scheme.” Apparently for the 
_ purpose of preventing my escape from the full force of his onset under 
cover of a divided responsibility for the ‘ plot,’ he proceeds to separate 
- this “blow” from that “meditated” by Hamilton’s application in 
2 1828, in which he did not then suspect me of participation. He says— 
“several indications forewarned me long since that a blow was medi- 
Miatea against me: J will not say from the quarter from which this 
_ comes; but in relation to this subject, more than two years since, I had 
_ acorrespondence with ” &c.* describing his correspondence with Ham- 
~ ilton. 
__ The mysterious blanks were at once, and to the great disappoint- 
_ ment of those who expected, not to say hoped, differently, explained 
| by Mr. Forsyth as referring in each instance to the same person, viz: 
| to Mr. Hamilton, of whose agency in the matter Mr. Calhoun was 
fully aware. 
_ Was it uncharitable to attribute to this anxiety to implicate and 
| consequently to destroy me politically the failure of the accommoda- 
tion between the two highest officers of the Government generally 
supposed to have been successfully negotiated by Swartwout, and the 
‘substitution of a mode of bringing the matter before the Country 
which might accomplish both results? 

Before I go further I must say a word, in justice to my own feel- 
“ings, in relation to the parts taken in this affair by Col. Johnson and 
Mr. Grundy. Johnson was the friend of the human race and all who 
needed his services in any honorable way could have them. In ren- 
dering them thus readily and thus liberally it sometimes happened 
that i in serving one he unintentionally injur 
mon fate of such a disposition. He was an old friend of Me. Calhoun, 
| not only willing but anxious to serve him. From my knowledge of 
him I am quite confident that the idea of the injurious effect which 


1 This and the preceding quotations are from Calhoun’s letter of May 29, 1830, in the 
Jackson Papers. 


382 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


his success in the proposed arrangement with Mr. Blair might h 
upon me never occurred to him. I cannot in candour say as m 
for Grundy. He had too strong a taste for political manceuvreing 
within allowable boundaries—and was too experienced a tackiniel tO 
have failed in seeing the bearing of the whole thing. My intercou: 
with him before this period had been in comparison with Mr. Cal . 
houn’s very limited. He was several years later a member of my 
‘Cabinet and I became much attached to him. He was a man of 
liberal and just feelings and quite devoted where he took a liking. 
He and Mr. Calhoun served together in Congress during the War of 
1812 and formed with each other friendly relations which were, I 
believe, never entirely obliterated notwithstanding the confidential 1 
position in which he was subsequently placed in respect to Gen. Jack- 
son and the enmity that arose between the latter and Mr. Calhou: uf 
One of the most amusing scenes I witnessed in the Senate, during mj 
long service in that body, was produced by Mr. Clay’s attempting to 
implicate Mr. Grundy in Mr. Calhoun’s nullification scheme. This 
bantering vivacity and persistency of the arraignment, with the 
earnestness and vigour of the defense, and the invincible good nature 
of the parties called out frequent bursts of applause and laughter 
The accused described with his finger an imaginary line between 
himself and Mr. Calhoun, who sat quite near him, declared in the 
strongest terms his warm regard for that penilenan: referred with 
satisfaction to the many political battles they had fought, side Oy 
side, against the federalists during the war, then, pointing to the line 
of ier as he had indicated it, admitted that he had some 
times been found near it but affirmed ain great solemnity and obvi- 
ous sincerity that he had never in a single instance passed it, and 
challenged Mr. Clay to produce a particle of proof to the contrary. 
This position he very successfully sustained to the end of the debate 
to the great entertainment and amusement of the Senate, not except- 
ing Mr. Calhoun himself. 

Mr. Grundy was also unreservedly loyal to the friendship } he 


I have said, of me ¢ but I a not believe that oe feelings towards 
me were ever positively unfriendly and the general amiability of 
his disposition (which extended to all his acquaintances except 
colleague Judge White,’ whom he cordially disliked, chiefly bee 
he had good reason to know that the Judge disliked him) wo 
have inclined him, I doubt not, to draw us all out of the qua 
if he could; as that however would have defeated the main purpose 
he was not permitted to do it and hence his efforts were confined 
naturally to the side of his two old friends andi he left me to the 
buffetings of the storm which he saw approaching. 


1 Hugh Lawson White. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 383 


Tt has been by such considerations, with the knowledge I sub- 
quently acquired of his fondness for the strategical branch of 
tical warfare, to which I may again have occasion to refer, that 
my feelings in regard to his agency in the present matter Pe been 
controHed. 

_ Admitting the truth of every thing said in Mr. Calhoun’s pam- 
phlet of 52 pages about Gen. Jackson and himself in regard to 


* 


the question in dispute between them there was nothing that would 
or should have impaired the confidence of the American people in 
4 the General’s patriotism or integrity. Mr. Calhoun admitted in the 
Z ee pondence that he had never Bpeshioned either. The Gener al 


ame matters had come out of the contest confirmed in full pos- 
sion of the favor and confidence of the people. His case was 


Mise, to the knowledge of the Country the °facts that he had 
_ written a private letter to President Monroe telling him that if the 
Administration appreciated as he did the mndieoensaple necessity of 
occupying ae the ae oe) and wished him to take 


See acibility, and that no answer had ever been returned to that 
er, thereby leaving him a fair excuse at least for regarding the 
mee of the President as furnishing the suggested hint. What 
e General had done, whether within the line of his instructions 
not, had been done to protect the lives of our people against the 
savages led on by renegades from all nations who were indirectly, 
at least, fostered and encouraged from the places upon which he 
seized. All admitted the purity of his motives and a majority 

f his countrymen were satisfied that the high necessity of his act 
.. sufficiently apparent to justify the exercise of the authority 
with which he had been clothed and of the power he held. Upon 
same overruling principle of the safety of the people, he con- 
edly exceeded his instructions at New Orleans, and by his con- 


of glory, but_attracted to himself the attention and support of the 
zople for the elevated civil position to which he succeeded. 

Gen. Jackson’s personal inducements to fight his Seminole cam- 
ign still another time in the newspapers were very slight, but 
thinking that he saw in the whole proceeding a design to strike 
down a man whom he knew to be innocent and who was moreover 


° MS. IV, p. 40. 


384 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


his intimate friend and constitutional adviser he indignantly 
fused to sanction the arrangement that had been been devised, and 
to suffer that assault to be made over his shoulders. My situation 
was however very different. The offence charged against me was 
in every respect a heinous one.* If I could so far have forgotten 
what was due to my position and to my own honour as to have 
revived that old and forgotten affair for the purpose of producing 
a quarrel between the President and Vice President, who had never 
quarrelled about it before, in the hope of thereby promoting my 
owns political advancement, there was scarcely a depth of public 
scorn and reproach to which I would not have richly deserved to 
sink. It would have been difficult to conceive of a case better calcu- 
lated to excite the unmeasured condemnation of all good citizens. 
The welfare of the people, the character of the Government, so far 
as that depends upon the conduct of its highest officials, and the 
peace of mind of an old and care worn public servant, yet bearing 
on his shoulders the gravest responsibilities of the State, with many 
other scarcely less important interests would all have suffered out- 
rage through such an intrigue on my part. . 

That the main object of the publication was to fasten that offence 
upon me was clearly indicated by the ‘ appeal,’ was the public under- 
standing of the matter and shortly after it was published ceased to 
be denied in any quarter. The developments of time have furnished 
specific proof.of this design. Col. Benton in his work already fre- 
quently referred to, describing the origin of the “@lobe” newspaper 
makes the following statement: * . 

At a Presidential levee in the winter of 1830-31, Mr. Duff Green, Editor of 
the “ Telegraph”, newspaper, addressed a person then’ and now a respectable 
resident of Washington city (Mr. J. M. Duncanson) and invited him to call 
at his house, as he had something to say to him which would require a con 
fidential interview. ‘The call was made and the object of the interview 
closed, which was nothing less than to engage his (Mr. Duneanson’s) assistance 
in the execution of a scheme in relation to the next presidential election, im 
which Gen. Jackson should be prevented from becoming a candidate for 
election and Mr. Calhoun should be brought forward in his place. He infor 
Mr. Duncanson that a rupture was impending between Gen. Jackson and Mr. 
Calhoun; that a correspondence had taken place between them, brought about 
(as he alleged) by the intrigues of Mr. Van Buren; that the correspondence 
was then in print, but its publication delayed until certain arrangements coulc 
be made; that the democratic papers at the most prominent points in 
States were to be first secured; and men well known to the people as de 
crats, but in the exclusive interest of Mr. Calhoun, placed in charge of 
as editors; that as soon as the arrangements were complete the Telegraph 
would startle the Country with the announcement of the difficulty (betw 
Gen. Jackson and Mr. Calhoun) and the motive for it; and that all the sec 
presses, taking their cue from the Telegraph would take sides with Mr. Ca 
houn, and cry out at the same time; and the storm would seem to be so 


@ Benton’s Thirty Years’ View; vol. 1, p. 129. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 385 


_ versal, and the indignation against Mr. Van Buren would appear to be so great 

- that even Gen. Jackson’s popularity would be unable to save him. 

_ Mr. Duncanson was invited to assist by taking charge of the 

_ Kentucky Argus and, notwithstanding flattering inducements, de- 
clined, and subsequently caused Gen. Jackson to be informed of the 

overture who thereupon took measures to establish the Globe. 

The effects produced were certainly, for a short period in fair 
proportion to the odious nature of the charge, the artful disguises 
which had been thrown over the transactions out of which it was 
_ constructed, and the machinery so cunningly devised to help it 

to do its work. To show the nature and extent of those effects I 
content myself with the insertion here of a single letter selected 
irom the numerous anxious communications I received on the sub- 
ject. It proceeded from the capital of a State lying comparatively 
near the seat of the Federal Government—a State which always 
_ bestowed more earnest and busy attention upon national questions 
_ than was given by any of her sister States and which, I may add, 
then at least exerted a greater influence than any others, upon the 
general sentiment of the Country. Mr. Ritchie possessed my un- 
limited confidence, and had been encouraged to communicate his 
opinions upon all public subjects in which I was concerned without 
reserve—a privilege which he exercised, on stirring occasions, in 
its broadest latitude. 

This letter bears the following endorsement: « pases on the 
day that my Card appeared and after its appearance” The letter 
and the Card passed each other that day on the Richmond route. 

DeEaR SIR, 

You know me too well to suppose that I would intrude upon your valuable 

_ time without some strong reason. I have always treated you with frankness, 
_ and I think it due to you to address you in the same spirit on the present 
occasion. I will address you as I candidly did Mr. Crawford in 1824, when, 
rithout being personally acquainted with him, I requested a particular friend 
to yisit Washington specially, with a confidential letter, to request an explana- 
tion upon a point of fact, in which he might be supposed to be deeply com- 
-promitted. He met the matter with the utmost possible frankness—explained 
all the circumstances, and removed every doubt and apprehension. 
But to the point at once;—I refer to Mr. Calhoun’s Correspondence. It is in 
_ vain for him to disclaim any “allusion to one particular individual ’—he does 
ntend you, and so every man who reads the publication will suspect. I will 
go further. The prompt declaration of the President has not been sufficient 
to clear you from the imputation. Many do believe it who were your friends 
2 and his. One e your mutual friends at mts (who is in the es 


ances and that you had had no agency at ‘all in this affair. My friend 
ampbell, to whom I wrote six or seven weeks ago upon this very point, with 
‘the privilege of showing my letter to the President and to yourself informed 
me in reply that you had no hand in it. I know not whether he showed you 


127483°—voL 2—20-——25 


386 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


my letter. I really wish he had. But this information is not in such a shape 
as to be given to the Public, and it wants your own stamp to make it more 
decisive. ; 

I need not inform you that this matter is the subject of universal conversa-— 
tion among us.. Many of our friends have expressed their doubts and fears, 
some, very vehemently: and a forcible article is° already put into my hands, 
by a warm friend of the administration, explaining the attitude in which he 
thinks this Correspondence places yourself. 

Discussion is inevitable. It struck me from the first and I am now more 
strongly satisfied of it. Will you then excuse me for asking your attention 
to the subject—for asking frankly whether you were concerned or consulted 
in bringing up this difference between the President and Vice President, and, 
moreover, for suggesting that you * should take the same publie course which 
the Vice President has taken—now that he has taken it—and make it clear 
to the Nation that his allusions to you are without foundation. All the evidence, 
which my Correspondent at Washington wrote me was in the possession of 
your friends, ought to be at once and fully produced,—every atom of it, with 
the most perfect and unblenching frankness. It is due to yourself and I am 
confident, to the Administration. f 

I address you Sir, without any circumlocution or intermediation. But if 
you have no objection I would take it as a favor that you show my letter to 
Gen. Jackson. I address you, too, with the sincerest wishes that you may be 
able to demolish every doubt, every apprehension, every political enemy. I 
trust that the thing may be made out as clear as a ray of light from Heayen. 
It has been my gratification to write you more agreeable letters, but never one 
that was dictated in a franker or more friendly spirit. 

I am, dear Sir, Resp” yours, 


‘ 


Tuos. Rircyin, 
Richmond, Feb. 21, 18381. 


As soon as all the persons of this drama had come forward—Mr. 
Calhoun with his pamphlet, Gen. Jackson with a few authorized 
statements in the Globe, and Messrs. Crawford, Forsyth, and Hamil- 
ton with their letters and explanations, I published this Card: 


[From the U. States Telegraph, Feb. 26.] 


Mr. VAN BUREN TO THE EDITOR OF THE TELEGRAPH. 


Mr. Van Buren transmits the enclosed to the Editor of the United States’ 
Telegraph for insertion in his paper of tomorrow. 
February 25th, 1831. 


Mr. Van Buren desires us, in relation to the correspondence between the 
Vice President and various other persons which has recently appeared, to 
make the following statement in his behalf. 

He observes that an impression is attempted to be made upon the public mind 
that certain applications by James A. Hamilton, Hsq., of New York, to Mr. — 
Forsythe, the one in February 1828, and the other last winter, and a similar — 
one to the Vice-President, for information in regard to certain Cabinet nance 


°MS. IV, p. 45. i 
*I correct my expressions. JI would not have you rusk into the newspapers, if some 
person, who is conversant with all the facts, would frankly come forth with all the ex- ~ 
culpatory evidence, in the calmest but most ingenuous terms, 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 387 


tions during the administration of Mr. Monroe and which are referred to by the 
latter gentleman, were so made by Mr. Van Buren’s advice or procurement. 
Leaving the motives and objects of those applications to those who may deem 
it necessary to notice them, Mr. Van Buren avers that they and each of them 
_ were not only made without agency of any description on his part, but also 
without his knowledge; and that he has at no period taken any part in the 
matters connected with them.—He desires us further to say that every assertion, 
or insinuation, which has for its object to impute to him any participation in 
attempts, supposed to have been made in the years 1827 and 1828 to prejudice the 
Vice President in the good opinion of Gen. Jackson, or at any time, is alike 
unfounded and unjust. He had no motive or desire to create such an impres- 
sion, and neither took, advised nor countenanced, directly or indirectly, 
any steps to effect that object. For the correctness of these declarations he 
appeals, with a confidence which defies contradiction, to all who have been actors 
in the admitted transactions referred to, or who possess any knowledge on the 


subject. 
Washington, Feb. 25, 1831. 


I have known few more striking instances in public life of a 
strong current of prejudice and suspicion arrested not only, but 
turned back upon those who started it, by an exposition so simple 
and so brief. Its effects were no less visible in their faces than in 
their conduct, and beyond the reckless invectives of the Telegraph 
no serious efforts were made further to uphold the plot. Many of 
my friends, roused from the stupor into which the apparent diffi- 
culties of the time had thrown them, urged me to go on and sus- 
tain my denial by the use of documents, some of which were then 
im my possession, and by the direct testimony of every person who 
had been named as principals or agents and who were all ready 
_ and anxious to come forward. Hamilton, as will be seen by his let- 
| ter to Lewis, was somewhat miffed that he was not called upon to 
exculpate me. Gen. Jackson could not forbear, years afterwards, 
when he heard of the reconciliation between Mr. Calhoun and my- 
self, to send me a not only unsolicited but entirely unexpected letter 
testifying to my innocence,’ of which he was, of all others, the best 
informed because he was the man whom I was charged with attempt- 
ing to prejudice and inflame against Mr. Calhoun. Two or three of 
these papers are inserted here, * * * but at the time I refused to 
a step beyond my Card. I opposed to the charges and insin- 
uations of my enemies a defiant contradiction and a character which, 
o’ long and vilely traduced, had never been successfully im- 
ached. Before these the ‘plot’ exploded, aided as they were by 
the utter unsoundness of the materials out of which it was con- 
structed which became more and more manifest to the apprehensions 
of men as the excitement subsided. 
__ The preliminary steps, relied upon as evidence of its original con- 
| coction and design, occurred in the years 1827 and 1828; the year pre- 


21840, July 31. In the Van Buren Papers. 


388 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. © 


ceding the Presidential election in which Gen. Jackson was chosen, 
and the year of that election. The immediate object of the plotting 
was (it was said) to obtain evidence that Mr. Calhoun had acted an 
unfriendly part in Mr. Monroe’s Cabinet towards the General touch- 
ing his conduct in the Seminole war. This would have been proof of — 
ill will on the part of Mr. Calhoun of which it was conceded the Gen- 
eral had never been informed and of the existehice of which he never 
even suspected. Cué bono—such an operation? | 

The friends of Mr. Crawford, who had supported him at the pre- — 
vious election, were, in Virginia, in New York, indeed in most of the 
States, save perhaps somewhat less cordially in Georgia, rallying to 
the support of Gen. Jackson, on the same ticket with whom, as candi- 
date for the Vice Presidency, and bound to the support of that ticket 
by interest and I doubt not by feeling also, stood Mr. Calhoun. The 
ascertainment of any fact which might place the relations between 
Mr. Crawford and Gen. Jackson upon a more cordial footing and by 
that means stimulate the comparatively sluggish support of the 
Georgians, an object avowed by the so called ‘ conspirators’ and dis- 
cussed on the trip to New Orleans, would have been a sensible move- 
ment. But what could be said or thought of an attempt to ferret out 
a fact which would have then inevitably produced, as it did produce 
when it came to light, hostility perhaps outbreak between Gen. Jack- 
son and Mr. Calhoun and a dismemberment of the ticket? Would ~ 
not Lewis and Hamilton and their advisers, if they had any, have 
deserved to be called mad men if they conceived or entered upon such 
a scheme? Suppose, for the sake of meeting every ground of sus- 
picion or of imputation that their object was to obtain information 
to be used at some distant day, after the election, to bring about the 
desired alienation between their candidates—would they then have 
gone directly to Mr. Calhoun and thus putting him on the track of 
their machinations have addressed to him the question the prosecu- 
tion of which was to bring to light the evidence of his hostility to 
Jackson on a certain occasion, the precise question put to Crawford 
and then not yet answered? Would they not rather have waited for 
the desired information which Mr. Crawford’s well known enmity to 
Mr. Calhoun authorized them to expect speedily from him? No! 
The notion of a design “to extract from him, if possible, some hasty 
and unguarded expression respecting the course of the Cabinet on the 
Seminole question,” by which he might be “entangled” will be 
found, on looking at the facts as afterwards stated by Mr. Calhoun in 
his ‘appeal’ unsustained by a single circumstance or feature of the 
case, and the simple solution of the matter is doubtless this:—Mr. 


1A good presentation of this affair will be found in Bassett’s Life of Andrew Jackson, 
(N. Y., 1911) chap. xxiv, vol, 2, p. 497 e¢ seq. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 389 


_Calhoun’s reflections satisfied him that in the account which he had 
_ given to Hamilton of the proceedings in the Cabinet he had made a 
mistake which, if published, would in all probability render necessary 
_a further and unreserved disclosure of those proceedings in their 
integrity, like that which, in the sequel, he felt himself constrained ° 
to give in his‘ appeal.’ The certain consequence of such a step would 
have been, as he could not doubt, to involve him then in a quarrel 
with Gen. Jackson, as it did involve him when it was afterwards 
taken by the publication of the ‘appeal.’ This he was for obvious 
reasons anxious to avoid—for which purpose the only resource (if 
any existed) was the interdiction of the publication of what he had 
already said and the refusal to add further disclosures, on the ground 
of the sanctity due to Cabinet proceedings. By this course the reve- 
lation of the disturbing proceedings would, at the worst, be left to 
chance, and if Hamilton, after it had slept for two years, had not 
shown Forsyth’s letter to Lewis manifestly as a matter of curiosity, 
_ that revelation might never have been made. 

This was the construction ultimately placed by most disinterested 
_ and fair minds upon all the assertions and inuendoes, statements and 
_ counterstatements in the case, and the conviction became general that 
_ what plotting there was had been directed by other hands and aimed 
_ at the destruction of a different individual. In all my subsequent po- 
_ litical contests the charge of concocting and engineering that famous 
conspiracy was never revived against me, unless the vague and remote 
allusions on the occasion of the rejection of my nomination as Minis- 
| ter to England—when the use of the charge was in keeping with its 
: original object, may be considered such a revival. 
? 
+ 


Pe ee a a a 


{ did not see any of the papers contained in Mr. Calhoun’s pam- 
_ phlet before its public appearance in February 1831, but had, in the 

way I have described, received general impressions in respect to their 
| contents. Our eS consequently, became daily more and more 
; formal and ceased altogether after I had read that work. From that 
_ time until the extra-session of Congress in September 1837, a period 
of between six and seven years, our relations were those of undis- 
| guised hostility. At that session he supported the principle and the 
Tecommendations of my Message to Congress openly, ably, and with- 
out reserve. This was no eee determination, promising recrea- 
tion and ease. The doctrines to the support of which he thus com- 
; mitted himself pueoidably involved him in the internecine war with 


° MS. IV, p. 50. 


390 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


and had not been for nearly seven years upon ‘speaking terms. I 
appreciated and expressed, on all fitting occasions, my respect for 
and admiration of his noble bearing. But it could work no change 
in our personal relations, until the gulf which he had created, as has 
been described, between us should be bridged by a satisfactory con- 
cession of the injustice which had been done to me. No one under- 
stood better than he or was more sensible of the propriety of my 
course in avoiding the slightest advance towards a personal recon- — 
ciliation. Altho’ prepared in his feelings to take the first step in 
that direction himself he deferred doing so for more than two years 
for reasons which he assigned on the floor of the Senate in reply to— 
Mr. Clay’s insinuations upon the subject which shall be hereafter 
noticed. At the session of 183940, soon after my Message had been 
sent in, William H. Roane, one of the Senators from Virginia and a— 
worthy son of Spencer Roane, Jefferson’s confidential and devoted 
friend, asked an interview for the special purpose of conversing with 
me upon the subject of the existing personal relations between Mr. 
Calhoun and myself. The substance of his communication was that 
on their way to Washington Mr. Calhoun had told him that he 
thought the time had arrived to put an end to the non-intercourse — 
which had so long existed between us and that he had outlived his 
prejudices against me and was ready to make proper advances to that 
end,—that agreeing in politics and engaged as we both were in the 
support of a great public question such a course, in respect to our 
personal relations, was in his judgment demanded by public consid- 
erations of an imperative character,—that altho’ he did not expect to 
find anything in it to change his views he would prefer to see my 
forthcoming Message before any step was taken in the matter, but 
after that he wished Mr. Roane, if not otherwise instructed, to com- 
municate to me what had passed between them, and if the course 
referred to was agreeable to me, he and Mr. Roane would make me 
a friendly visit, and, in that way, accomplish the object in view, and 
he thought this would be best done without referring to the pas 
I accepted the proposition with unaffected cordiality, and named the 
time at which I would receive them. They called and as we shook 
hands, Mr. Calhoun, in a few well chosen terms, repeated what he 
had said to Mr. Roane, which, being replied to in the same spirit, was” 
succeeded by general conversation upon the topics of the day. ; 

Mr. Calhoun’s separation from the party at the head of which 
stood Clay and Webster after having so long acted with them im 
opposition to Gen. Jackson’s Administration, excited their ill-will 
as is usual in such cases. He was fiercely attacked for his course 
by Mr. Clay on two occasions. The first was in February 1838; 
when the Independent Treasury Bill passed the Senate, and the 


, 
y 
: 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 391 


next in December 1839, when the personal reconcilation between Mr. 
Calhoun and myself became publicly known. The debates on both 
occasions have been carefully and impartially reported by Col. 
Benton in the second volume of his Thirty Year's View, and are un- 
usually interesting, the lines of attack and defence extending to 
the entire political lives of both Senators and exhibiting on both 
sides thorough preparation and extraordinary ability. 

On the first occasion the previous personal relations between 
Mr. Calhoun and myself had been harshly commented upon, as 
respected the former, at the very threshhold of the debate but the 
reconciliation had not then taken place. When that became pub- 
lic Mr. Clay forthwith lugged it into the discussions of the Senate. 

Mr. Calhoun brought forward a Bill authorizing the cession 
of certain portions of the public lands, which he had introduced 
before any of the occurrences here referred to, notwithstanding 
which fact, Mr. Clay enquired of him whether the measure now 
brought forward was favored by the Administration and based 
the enquiry upon the rumored change which had recently taken 
place in the personal relations that had so long existed between 
the Senator and the President. This was followed by a succes- 
sion of thrustings and parryings upon various points, spirited, and 
not wanting in an undertone of bitterness. After some protesting 
against the indecorum of Mr. Clay’s course in dragging his per- 
sonal relations before the Senate, Mr. Calhoun felt himself con- 
strained by his persevering personality to enter into an explana- 
tion of what had taken place between us so far as that had any 
public bearing, and it is due to him that I should give it in his 
own words. 

I will assure the senator, if there were pledges in his case, there were none 
in mine. [ have terminated my long-suspended personal intercourse with the 
President, without the slightest pledge, understanding, or compromise, on 
either side. I would be the last to receive or exact such. The transition 
from their former to their present personal relation was easy and natural, 
requiring nothing of the kind. It gives me pleasure to say, thus openly, that 
I have approved of all the leading measures of the President, since he took 
the Executive chair, simply because they accord with the principles and policy 
on which I have long acted, and often openly avowed. The change, then, in 
our personal relations, had simply followed that of our political. Nor was it 


$ made suddenly, as the senator charges. So far from it, more than two years 


have elapsed since I gave a decided support to the leading measure of the 


_ Executive, and on which almost all others since have turned. This long in- 


terval was permitted to pass, in order that his acts might give assurance 


_ whether there was a coincidence between our political views as to the principles 


on which the government should be administered, before our personal relations 
should be changed. I deemed it due to both thus long to delay the change, 
among other reasons to discountenance such idle rumors as the senator 
alludes to. That his political. course might be judged (said Mr. Calhoun) by 


the object he had in view, and not the suspicion and jealousy of his political 


892 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


opponents, he would repeat what he had said, at the last session, was his 
object. It is, said he, to obliterate all those measures which had originated — 
in the. national consolidation school of politics, and especially the senator’s 
famous American system, which he believed to be hostile to the constitution 
and the genius of our political system, and the real source of all the dis- 
orders and dangers to which the country was, or had been, subject. This done, 
he was for giving the government a fresh departure, in the direction in which — 
Jefferson and his associates would give it, were they now alive and at the helm. — 
He stood where he had always stood, on the old State rights ground. His 
change of personal relation, which gave so much concern to the senator, so — 
far from involving any change in his principles or doctrines, grew out of — 
them.* 

° The declaration of Mr. Calhoun that he was induced to sustain 
my Administration, then in the third year of its existence, the 
course of which he had minutely watched under the influence of — 
extreme prejudice, by his desire to co-operate in a system of meas- 
ures designed and well calculated “to obliterate all measures which 
had originated in the National Consolidation school of politics,” 
which he believed to be “the real source of all the disorders and 
dangers to which the Country was or had been subject,” and “to 
give the Government a fresh departure in the direction in which 
Jefferson and his associates would give were they now alive and 
at the helm,” was certainly a compliment of great value coming 
from such a source. My motives in settling and promoting its 
course could not have been more ably or truly delineated. Nor was 
the same debate wanting in a marked expression of personal respect 
from Mr. Clay towards myself even whilst he censured Mr. Calhoun 
for supporting my policy. At the very commencement of his ar- 
raignment of that gentleman for his desertion of the Whig party, 
after repeating some violent speeches about me which he charged 
upon him, he thus spoke for himself: 

Who, Mr. President, are the most conspicuous of those who perseveringly 
pressed this bill upon Congress and the American people? Its drawer is the ; 
distinguished gentleman in the white house not far off (Mr. Van Buren) ; its 
indorser is the distinguished senator from South Carolina, here present. What 
the drawer thinks of the indorser, his cautious reserve and stifled enmity 
prevent us from knowing. But the frankness of the indorser has not left us 
in the same ignorance with respect to his opinion of the drawer. He has often 
expressed it upon the floor of the Senate. Qn an occasion not very distant, 
denying him any of the noble qualities of the royal beast of the forest, he 
attributed to him those which belong to the most crafty, most skulking and — 
the meanest of the quadruped tribe. Mr. President, it is due to myself to say, — 
that I do not altogether share with the senator from South Carolina in this 
opinion of the President of the United States. I have always found him, in 


his manners and deportment, civil, courteous and gentlemanly ; and he dispenses, — 
in the noble mansion which he now occupies, one worthy the residence of the 


1fxtract from Calhoun’s speech, 1838, in the debate between Clay and Calhoun, 
Benton’s Thirty Years’ View, 2, 120. fi 
° MS. IV, p. 55. 


oy AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN, 393 


ef magistrate of a great people, a generous and liberal hospitality. An aec- 
aintance with him of more than twenty years’ duration has inspired me 


with a respect for the man, although, I regret to be compelled to say, I detest 
the magistrate.’ : 


_ The word ‘detest’ expressed without doubt the Speaker’s dis- 
‘approbation of my official conduct with exaggerated emphasis as 
an offset, for the gratification of his followers, to the personal com- 
pliment; which latter seems indeed a bold and hazardous exploit 
_ when one recalls the descriptions of the desperate wickedness of 
my political designs with which Mr. Clay and his associate orators 
had long labored to excite the Country. It is apparent that he 
felt the political necessity of taking back with one hand what he 
bestowed liberally and genially with the other. 

_ I invited Mr. Calhoun to my table and he and his family fre- 
_ quently broke bread with me, our intercourse at once assuming a 
friendly and familiar footing. I felt that he had made me the 
_ amende honorable in the face of the Country and in a way wholly 
| free from exception. The prejudices I had naturally imbibed 
| against him on account of previous transactions were as effectually 
_ wiped from my mind as if they had never existed. He supported 
my Administration during the residue of my term and his State 
gave its vote in favor of my reelection—that being the first time in 
twelve years that she had voted for the Democratic candidate. With- 
drawn from Washington by the loss of the election I never saw Mr. 
f Calhoun again, but nothing occurred to give a character to our per- 
i sonal relations different from that which we had ourselves given to 
t them, until the time approached for the designation of the Demo- 
| cratic candidate for President for the election of 1844, 

| It was perhaps not surprising that Mr. Calhoun should, under 
he circumstances I hve narrated, not only have thought himself 
entitled to the nomination but have also thought that I ought not 
| to permit my name to be brought forward in opposition to him. 
| He was slightly my senior in age and altho’ not earlier in the 
political field had much sooner become conspicuous in Federal] poli- 
tics than myself and had been twenty years before supported for 
ne Presidency by a respectable section of the party. If for a 
on at variance with a majority of its members, he had returned 
‘its support at a critical period and was then in full communion, 
nd had, what I assumed to have been, his own sense become the sense 
f our political friends generally, I would not have felt disposed 
‘interpose obstacles in the way of its gratification. Indeed I do 
hesitate to say that I should very decidedly have preferred his 
mination to that which was finally made. But whilst nobody 


\ 


_ ~*£xtract from Clay’s speech, 1838, in the debate between Clay and Calhoun. Ben- 
n’s Thirty Years’ View, 2, 101. 


394 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


then thought of the latter save as a busy applicant for the second, 
few evinced a preference for Mr. Calhoun’s nomination for the 
first place. It turned out, on the contrary, that the mass of the 
party—certainly two thirds and probably three fourths of its mem- 
bers—considering that they had, in 1840, with absolute unanimity, 
approved the principles upon which I had administered the Goy-— 
ernment, and had, with equal accord, nominated me for re-election, — 
and that I had been defeated almost without reference to the | 
soundness or unsoundness of those principles but thro’ the instru-_ 
mentalities and debauncheries of a political Saturnalia, in which rea- 
son and justice had been derided, deemed it due to the honor of 
their cause that the reproach of that defeat should be effaced, when 
they had recovered their ascendancy in the popular vote, under an _ 
organization similar to that which had been subjected to it, and 
that this desirable object required my nomination. In their avowals 
of that opinion personal preferences appear to have had little 
weight. They were the expression of the conviction of a great 
party in respect to what was due to its own character and im- 
portant to its future usefulness and such a decision was entitled 
to respect and acquiescence on the part of the minority. I had no 
right to withhold my consent to the action by which it proposed 
to effect that object when satisfied that its course had been deter- 
mined upon fairly and its wishes unmistakably pronounced. A 
letter was addressed to me at an early period im the canvass by 
Mr. Henry Horn, a distinguished democrat from Pennsylvania, 
calling for my decision of that very question. My answer was, 
and it could have been no other, that, whilst I would take no steps 
to promote my own nomination, I would not deny the use of my 
name to the Democratic party if it was required. This answer 
was published.t 
Mr. Calhoun was opposed to my renomination, and at once took 
the field to defeat it. The first intimation I had of his determina- 
tion was derived through a family affair and was not on that ac- 


of Col. Singleton, in South Carolina; that gentleman beimg the 
father-in-law of my eldest son and standing in the same relation 
to Mr. McDuffie, the early and abiding friend of Mr. Calhoun. On 
the invitation of Col. Singleton, Mr. McDuffie, who had, in letters 
written to me for that purpose, applauded the course of my Ad- 
ministration in the strongest terms, agreed, long before I left home, 
to meet me on the occasion of my visit, but he did not come altho’ 


1 Horn’s letter of 1841, Nov. 13, and Van Buren’s reply, Nov. 26, are in the Van Buren 
Papers. The reply was printed in the Nashville Union, 1842, Feb. 6. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 395 


expected from day to day and his non-arrival gave rise to much 
disappointment and to various conjectures as to its cause. I did 
not think proper to enlighten my worthy host, altho’ I well under- 
stood the circumstance to be an evidence of Mr. Calhoun’s deter- 
mination, and however I might and did deprecate a new rupture 
in that quarter I could only regret it. Mr. Calhoun’s friends in 
_ Charleston, in addition to many other acts of unaffected personal 
q kindness, united with some gentlemen who were politically well 
_ disposed towards me, independently of his views, in inv iting me 
_ to a public dinner which I declined, in conformity with my in- 
_ yariable practice. He continued his opposition im various ways. 
_ one of which will necessarily be referred to in speaking of another 
_ matter, until my name was withdrawn from the National Conven- 
tion when his friends, who had until that time attended it as spec- 
J tators, had their names entered as delegates from South Carolina 
_ and took part in its action. 


. Whilst it would be idle to deny that the agreeable feelings excited 


by the reconciliation which had succeeded to many years of enmity, 

between Mr. Calhoun and myself, were somewhat blunted by these 
: transactions I still do myself the justice to say that they were not 
_ eradicated. I could not with justice impute to him much blame, 
after his long and, having regard to what is considered the ultima 

Thule of political life, adverse career, for wishing to prevent a 
nomination the defeat of which ° might enure to his own advance- 
_ ment, and I knew of no steps taken by him to promote his wishes 
the ieiigiient of which would not, as the world goes, have been 
_ deemed allowable. I saw therefore no cause of personal hostility 
' in his course neither was any such feeling engendered in my breast, 
_ although, from 1844 to the period of his death, there was no inter- 
| course between us. 
| This whole affair was perhaps as satisfactorily disposed of as 
_ could be expected among eager and excited politicians. All that 
g remains to be done in respect to it and to kindred matters of a 
“common origin, such as nullification and the rejection of my nom- 
' ination as Minister to England, none of which would, in all prob- 
ability, have ever arisen, certainly not at that time, but for the 
Eaton imbroglio, and in most of which Mr. Calhoun was a promi- 
_ nent actor, is that the facts in respect to them should be well ascer- 
: tained and correctly recorded. 


° MS. IV, p. 60. 


CHAPTER XXVIII. 


These transactions and questions possess an interest beyond the 

actors in them and the times in which they arose. That of whichi 

I am now writing was a political quarrel between the highest officers 

of the Republic in which, altho’ an attempt was made on one side 

to make its injurious consequences fall on an humbler head, the 
principals appeared in proper person, and it involved a review of — 
the conduct of a public war in respect to acts of grave importance — 
affecting the rights and, as it was supposed, the honor of a third — 
Power. Another—South Carolina nullification—brought to the test _ 
the construction of the Federal Constitution upon a point vital to 
the existence of the Government and from the desperation of the 
contest to which it gave birth exposed the Federal Union to greater 
peril than any which it has at any other time encountered. The 
next was an attempt by a controlling part of one of the great 
branches of the Federal Government to humiliate and degrade its 
representative at one of the first Courts in Europe, performing his 
official duties in the presence of similar representatives from all 
the civilized States of the world—to do this upon pretences which 
not only were discountenanced, as will be seen, so far as was allow- 
able, by the Government to which he was accredited and condemned 
by all just and liberal foreigners whose attention was directed to 
them, but were denounced by a majority of the People of the United 
States, by whom the intended victim was raised to the first place 
in the Government whilst the authors of the attempt were ever 
afterwards excluded from their confidence when they acted in their 

highest function of selecting the Chief Magistrate of the Republic. 
These things occurred in the face of the world. They belong to 
history and those who from time to time are moved to carry for- 
ward the work of history will pay their respects to them whether 
the actors or their representatives do so or not. We have seen in 
our day that the power of truth and the progress of liberal ideas 
have broken down the barriers behind which it was the custom to 
keep hidden the secrets of States and Statesmen, and have established 
the rule that they shall at proper times, and having regard to the 
feelings of the actors, be brought into view, and that accordingly the 
private papers of our public men, which were deemed to possess any 
interest, have been unreservedly given to the public. When these 
sheets see the light, if they ever do so, the time will have arrived 
for the application of these principles to the transactions of which 
396 


| 


gs. AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 397 


I am, speaking, without ground of complaint on the part of any. 
Altho’ my narrative combines the disadvantages of being told by a 
party interested in the scenes I describe, with the advantages of 
having been a contemporary and éye witness, I aim only to do justice 
on all sides under the guidance of the first and fundamental law of 
‘his ory as declared by Cicero, that “it should neither dare to say 
anything that is false, nor fear to say anything that is true.” 
_ The “Plot” having exploded, the brochure got up by the Con- 
gressional printer (Duff Green) and hawked about by Congressional 
“messengers, lay on public and private tables a Caput mortuum 
exciting little feeling other than pity for the weakness in which — 
‘it was engendered. I might be pardoned a momentary feeling of 
exaltation when I saw my bitter and remorseless enemies struggling 
in the toils which they had prepared for my destruction; J certainly 
had reason to rejoice that so fitting an opportunity had been pre- 
sented to place my conduct—such as it really had been on an occasion 
which might have offered strong temptations to an intriguing poli- 
tician—fairly before the Country and to contrast it with the un- 
tiring machinations against me. This was a point of peculiar 
. importance, as the efforts to fasten impressions upon the popular 
_ mind of a capacity and disposition on my part for political intrigue 
had met with a greater degree of success than had attended other 
 calumnious assaults upon my character, and to have the falsity of 
_ charges of this description so satisfactorily demonstrated at a mo- 
ment when those impressions were upon the point of doing me the 
| greatest harm was both useful and gratifying. 
Nor was the prospect of the personal and political advantages to 
_ be derived from my continuance in office without allurements. The 
b Eaton affair, which had been the plague spot of Administration dur- 
ing two years past, had lost its interest or suffered eclipse, and offered 
| no further embarrassment which might not be ended, if it became 
| expedient, by sending the immediate parties on a foreign mission, as 
| was afterwards done, and the so considered refractory members of 
e Cabinet might have been left in possession of the pageantry of 
- their official positions so long as they did not, by complicity with its 

mnemies, obstruct the course of the Administration, or they might 
ave been dismissed, without the slightest disturbance, when they 
- aid so. 

There seemed, indeed, no insurmountable obstacle so far as related 
0 the Executive branch of the Government to the further prosecu- 
om of the idea to which I have before referred as one which had 
ken full possession of my thoughts from the time I became thor- 
ghly acquainted with Gen. Jackson’s qualities and with his power 
er the public mind, namely, to essay how far the political capital 
aus furnished—the greater, all things considered, than had been 


398 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


possessed by any previous Administration—might be successfully 
employed in the acquisition of public advantages which, under less 
potential auspices I would have justly regarded as hopeless. Never- 
theless the interval between the publication of Mr. Calhoun’s Corre- 
spondence and ‘ appeal’ and my resignation of the office of Secretary 
of State was clouded by doubt and anxiety in regard to my future 
course. Through the transactions of which I have spoken and the 
strong emotions excited by them in the breast of Gen. Jackson my 
position had become, in the phrase of the day, that of heir apparent 
to the succession. JI needed no more than my experience for the past 
two years, confirmed by that of Messrs. Adams and Clay, to satisfy 
me of the great evils to which an Administration was exposed whose 
chief Cabinet officer occupied that position. ‘They were of a nature 
impossible to escape the eyes of any but the foolhardy and blindly 
ambitious. It was not safe to found hopes of exemption from them 
on the examples of success in such situations furnished by the earlier 
periods of the Government. In those days the selection of candi- 
dates was confined to comparatively few individuals and the repub- 
lican party was not the theatre for Presidential intrigues upon any — 
thing like the same scale as that since in vogue. No degree of absti- — 
nence or discretion on the part of the Minister plausibly suspected — 
of aiming at the succession could protect an Administration thus 
encumbered from the assaults to which he would inevitably expose it. 
Whether he availed himself of his position to intrigue for his 
advancement or not he would be charged with doing so by thousands 
who would believe him guilty of it and by other thousands in the 
ranks of the supporters of the Administration who would think” 
themselves interested in spreading such a belief. Thus the design of 
working for my own elevation at the expiration of Gen. Jackson’s 
first term was freely imputed to me whilst I solemnly affirm that I 
had been a steady advocate of his re-election and was exerting myself 
at the time to put down movements that were attempted in my behalf. 

Near the close of the first year of the Administration, in reply 
to some givings out in my favor by Major Noah, of the Vew York 
Courier and Enquirer—an editor proverbially imprudent and who 
in the sequel became worse—the Telegraph stated as follows: “ We 
KNow that no one is more opposed to the agitation of that questio 
[that of the succession] than Mr. Van Buren, and that he permits 
no fit opportunity of discountenancing and discouraging it to pass 
by unimproved.” Without enquiry into the motives of this appar: 
ently friendly statement, the course of events makes it proper t 
say that it was made before the establishment of the “Globe” an 
before matters were ripe for an attack on me—perhaps before such 
a step was contemplated. It was at all events, at a time when th 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 399 


editor of the Telegraph hazarded nothing in ° saying about me what 
_he honestly believed to be true, but no sooner had war been declared 
in form by Mr. Calhoun than my desire to precipitate the question 
in regard to the succession and my intrigues to secure my own ele- 
vation at the end of Gen. Jackson’s first term were his daily themes. 
When I come to speak of my first nomination for the Presidency 
I will have occasion to refer to circumstances which will place my 
entire course upon this subject beyond the reach of cavil. Altho’ 
' it was not in his power to lay his hand upon a shred or semblance 

of evidence to show that my conduct upon the point in question had 

varied in the slightest degree, yet his views of his own interests 
_ having changed and the period having arrived for the development 

of projects which had been for some time in preparation, the ab- 
sence and indeed non-existence of proof made no difference and I 
_ knew that it would make no difference in future either with him 
or with the affiliated presses of which he spoke to Mr. Duncanson, 
or with the opposition press in general. That was the vantage 
_ ground from which the attacks of all were to be made to the end 
_of the war, which if the general should be re-elected and should 
live so long, was to last for a period of six years; a ground the 
Strength and efficacy of which were likely to be constantly in- 
creased during that interval by the addition of new aspirants to 
the Presidency from our own ranks and to be brought to bear upon 
Congress, the press, the people and wherever else such aspirants 
“might hope to discover recruits. In my cordial aversion to being 
| made the cause of such a warfare upon the Administration of that 


honest old man who had devoted the remnant of his life and 
| strength to the public service and upon the interests of the Country 
committed to his charge, the idea originated of resigning the high 
office to which I had been appointed. My inquietude was doubtless 
increased sensibly by the reflection that I had been the object of 
‘similar assaults before I came to Washington, and that I had hoped 
by the change in my field of action to throw off the hounds by whom 
personal character is hunted down. I was for many years, while 
| in the service of my state persistently charged with influencing the 
action of the appointing power for my own advancement when I 
was thoroughly conscious that there was not one among my cotem- 
'poraries who estimated as lightly as I did the advantages of such 
| appliances, or who was more disinclined by taste and by judgment 
than myself to meddle in them. Such incessant defamation added 
| to the thousand vexations to which official station is otherwise ex- 
| Posed wore upon my health and spirits to an extent which would 
now be deemed incredible by such of my associates as judged only 


°MS. IV, p. 6 


400 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. sees: 

a 
from what they saw of me in public, but which nevertheless made 
me at times heartily sick of public life; so much so that I often 
determined, during successive winters, to throw up the offices I held, 
in the spring and to confine my future exertions to my profession. 
These resolutions as they were from time to time formed were the 
subject of discussions in my family and occasionally communicated 
to my friends; the latter however did not believe in them, and I 
had perhaps no right to expect them to do so as, thro’ causes more 
easily appreciated than described, I myself had so often contra- 
dicted my professions by my action when the time arrived for 
carrying them into effect. They were notwithstanding always sin- 
cere. Of the frequent occasions on which I was thus ‘seriously 
inclined’ one occurs to my recollection as I write to which I will 
refer. Whilst holding the offices of State Senator and Attorney 
General, I was one afternoon about to return to Albany from 
Schenectady whither I had been called by business. I found Colonel 
Aaron Burr at the hotel enquiring for a conveyance to Albany and 
as I travelled in my own carriage I offered him a seat. The period 
was after his return from Europe and when his fortunes were at 
their lowest ebb. Our drive occupied us till a late hour of the even- 
ing during which I was entertained much by his free, caustic and 
characteristic observations. Whilst sounding me in regard to my 
political expectations, of which he was pleased to say complimen- 
tary things, I surprised him by the remark that I thought of givin 
up politics and of devoting myself to my profession and that with 
that view I meant to resign my place in the Senate in the ensui 
spring. He was curious to know my reasons and I gave them in th 
spirit I have here indicated. After a brief reflection he answered. 
“Sir! you have gone too far to retreat. The only alternative lef 
to you is to kick or to be kicked, and as you are not fool enoug! 
to prefer the latter you will not resign !” 


CHAPTER XXIX. 


My career in State politics had been in general successful and in the 
end signally such. After competing for a quarter of a century, the 
greater part of the time as the undisputed leader of my party in my 
_ County and State, with such men as De Witt Clinton, Ambrose 
_ Spencer, Abraham Van Vechten, William W. and William P. Van 
_ Ness, Elisha Williams, Thomas P. Grosvenor, Thomas J. Oakley, 
_ John Duer, Chancellor Jones, David B. Ogden, Harry Croswell, 
~ Solomon Southwick and William Colden, mutatis mutandis, I left 
_ the service of the State for that of the Federal Government with 
my friends in full and almost unquestioned possession of the State 
_ Government in all its branches, at peace with each other and over- 
_ flowing with kindly feelings towards myself, and not without hope 
me that I might in the sequel by good conduct be able to realize similar 
results in the enlarged sphere of action to which I was called. I 
_ soon found, however, that in respect to the practicability of carrying 
‘into effect the best intentions there was a peculiar difference be- 
tween the two systems, which young Statesmen will do well to bear 
in mind. Whilst the public functionary connected with the State 
Government acts almost under the eyes of and in constant inter- 
_ course with those who are the judges of his actions and consequently 
_has full opportunity to enable them to appreciate his motives, under 
_ the General Government the actions of the official are, with very 
_ few exceptions, to be passed upon by men a vast majority of whom 
_ can have no personal knowledge on the subject and who must weigh 
~ his conduct at a distance and decide from report. Having learned 
to estimate at its true value this important distinction and con- 
_ Vinced by experience and observation of the aggravated effects which 
“it promised to long continued harping upon the old theme, even 
| false as it was, I felt that my success was at least doubtful. It should 
be borne in mind that in the days when this conclusion was arrived 
“at respect was yet maintained for the obligation of Government to 
preserve the purity of the elective franchise, or as declared by Pres- 
ident Jackson in his Inaugural address, to eschew “bringing the 
patronage of the Government into conflict with the freedom of 
ections.” My apprehensions might well be derided at the present 
me when the contrary practices are indulged in by all parties with 
a license that contemns both right and decency and which threatens, 
“if not seasonably arrested, to subvert our institutions, 
127483°—vor 2—20—— 26 401 


402 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


Having accepted a high and responsible official trust, I was duly 
conscious that, I was not at liberty to permit personal considerations 
to control my course in resigning it, and I certainly did not design 
to do so. The success of Gen. Jackson’s Administration and his 
own tranquillity and comfort were to be promoted, in my judgment, 
by that step, nevertheless views and considerations of self obtruded 
themselves in all my deliberations in regard to it; it was not pos- 
sible to exclude them altogether and to say how far I was influenced 
by them would require a greater proficiency in self-knowledge than 
I pretend to. They at all events mitigated the sacrifice involved in 
the course on which I decided when stimulated afresh by the plots, 
intrigues and calumnies by which I had been for two years sur- 
rounded, I recurred to my often formed and often abandoned reso- 
lution to retire from the political field. 

This is as full and as correct a view as it is, at this late day, in 
my power to give of the opinions and feelings under which I re- © 
signed the oflice of Secretary of State, a step which, from its being 
at the time entirely unexpected, produced much excitement, which 
my opponents found or affected to find impossible to comprehend, 
and which my friends did me the honor to regret. It has seemed 
to me, under present circumstances, proper to give it, whether it 
may be deemed of a nature to attract approval or disapproval, to 
qualify, or to confirm the opinion heretofore formed of my conduct 
on the occasion. 

The only inmate of my household at the time, besides the servants, 
was my son Colonel Van Buren, to®° whom alone I confided my in- 
tention and who after hearing my reasons, unhesitatingly concurred 
in them, notwithstanding the professional and social advantages” 
which he derived from my official position and residence and which 
surrounded him with strong inducements to regret the step I was 
about to take. A fit occasion to break the matter to the President 
was only waited for and that I looked to find during one of our 
frequent rides. Several however occurred and passed by without 
my having had the heart to broach the subject and as I returned 
from each with the business undisposed of I was received with a 
good humoured laugh at my expense by my son. My hesitation 
arose exclusively from my apprehension, I may say consciousness 
of the pain the communication would give to the General. On one 
occasion we were overtaken by a severe thunder storm which com- 
pelled us to take shelter in a small tavern near the race course, an 
to remain there several hours. His spirits were on that day much 
depressed and on our way out he spoke feelingly of the condition 
to which he had bee: reduced in his domestic establishment, Majo 


2 MSS BVe ap. C0. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 403 


Donelson and the ladies and children, of whom he was exceedingly 
fond, having, some time before, fled to Tennessee to avoid the Eaton 
malaria, leaving Major Lewis his only companion in the Presi- 
"dential Mansion. I have scarcely ever known a man who placed 
a higher value upon the enjoyments of the family circle or who 
suffered more from interruptions of harmony in his own; feelings 
which are more striking in view of the fact I have mentioned before 
that not a drop of his own blood flowed in the veins of a single mem- 
ber of it. But they were generally the near relatives of a wife whose 
memory he revered. Observing hiseunusual seriousness I said little 
to him during our detention and spent much of the time in an ad- 
joining room conversing with an intelligent farmer of the neigh- 
bourhood who had been driven to the same shelter by the storm. 
When the rain ceased we remounted, and, as the weather was still 
lowering, soon took to a brisk canter. We had not gone far when 
his horse slipped on the wet road and threatened to fall or to throw 
his rider. I was near enough to seize the bridle and thus to assist 
him in regaining his footing. As he recovered his seat, the General 
exclaimed quickly “You have possibly saved my life, Sir!” I said 
that I did not regard the danger he had escaped in so grave a light, 
yet congratulated myself on the service whatever might have been 
its degree, to which he answered in broken and half audible sen- 
‘tences which I understood to import that he was not certain 
whether his escape from death, if it was one, was, under existing 
‘circumstances, worthy of much congratulation. Neither the in- 
eidents of this day nor the General’s frame of mind invited me 
to make the communication which I still kept in store for him. 

We subsequently started earlier than usual and with charming 
weather bent our course up the Potomac river. After passing: George- 
town I missed one of my gloves and begging him to go on returned 
‘to look for it. On remounting after finding it, and putting my horse 
to a gallop to overtake my companion I resolved that I would break 
the subject of my resignation to him forthwith. We were just turn- 
ing from the Potomac road towards Tenally Town and he was ex- 
pressing a more cheerful and sanguine view of our prospects of re- 
lief from domestic broils, saying, with confidence that “we should 
soon have peace in Israel,” when I replied “No! General, there is 
| but one thing can give you peace.” He asked quickly “What is that, 
Sir?” to which I answered—‘ My resignation!” Thirty years have 
passed since that day and still I recall to mind the start and the 
learnest look with which he received the words as vividly as if the 
cene had occurred yesterday. ‘Never, Sir!” he said solemnly, 
“even you know little of Andrew Jackson if you suppose him capable 

f consenting to such a humiliation of his friend by his enemies,” 


404 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


I was myself not a little confused by the warmth and vehemence 
of his exclamation, but after a few moments of silence to recom- 
pose my thoughts I returned to the subject. His expressions applied, 
as it was natural they should in the first instance, to the personal 
aspect and bearing of the suggestion. The idea presented to his 
mind was that of sacrificing his friend to appease the clamor of his 
enemies than which nothing could be more revolting to his feelings. 
I therefore hastened to say that my faith in the extent and sincerity 
of his friendship had no limits—that I knew as well as I knew any- 
thing that he would sooner endure any degree of personal or official 
injustice and persecution than consent to my leaving the Cabinet fo 
any object or for any reasons save such as were by the obligations of 
honor and of patriotism made binding upon both of us; that he 
would immediately perceive that our personal feelings and interests 
were not worthy of consideration, under the cireumstances in which 
we found ourselves, when compared with the greater question of 
what we both and especially what, from the higher character of the 
trusts he had assumed, he owed to the Country and to the people 
whose agents we were. Undoubtedly there were many and important 
points to be calmly and carefully reviewed before we could hope to 
arrive at a correct conclusion on the main question, and I assured 
him that I had not ventured to disturb his feelings by the suggestion 
I had made without having long and anxiously considered it u 
every possible aspect and that, if he would give me a patient hearing. 
I thought I could satisfy him that the course I had pointed to was 
perhaps the only safe one open to us. He agreed to hear me but 
in a manner and in terms affording small encouragement as to the 
success of my argument. I proceeded for four hours, giving place 
only to brief interrogations from him, to present in detail the rea: 
sons upon which my suggestion was founded, extending to a careful 
and, as far as I was able, a clear review of the public interests an¢ 
of our own duties and feelings involved in the matter. In the course 
of it we passed without notice the Tenally Town gate, always befor 
the limit of our rides in that direction, and did not reach home until 
long after our usual dinner hour. He heard me throughout not onl} 
with patience but with deep interest. In returning he asked me wha 
were my Own views, as to the future, if he should accept my resigna- 
tion. I replied that I would return to the practice of my profession 
but he instantly declared that such a result, or any that woul p 


with him whatever might be his conclusion on the views of the pr 
cipal question which I had presented to him and by which he com 
fessed that his first impressions had been weakened. In this conne¢é 
tion the English Mission was spoken of as probably the best means 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 405 ~ 


? 
of carrying out his wishes if he should persist in them, and either | 
then or subsequently I brought to his notice my understanding of the 
acceptance of that appointment as a virtual abandonment of any 
“expectation or hope my friends might otherwise entertain on the 
“subject of my accession to the Presidency. I begged him not to 
“speak of my proposed resignation to any person, not excepting 
Lewis and Eaton, as it would be very undesirable to have it known, in 
case of failure, that such a wish had been entertained. He took my 
_ hand, at parting, and said that I had given him much to think of 
and that I must come over after dinner and discuss the subject 
again deliberately. 
__ I had an engagement for the evening but promised to see him 
in the morning. When I called at the White House, on the follow- 
ing day my mind was not free from serious misgivings. The Presi- 
dent had from the ingenuousness of his nature seemed to yield to 
the obvious force of the truth as I had spread it before him, but 
his concessions had been so evidently against his inclinations that 
I feared they would not be found to have kept their ground thro’ 
the watches of the night. I had no sooner entered his room than 
ls saw a confirmation of my apprehensions in the usual signs of a 
_Ssleepness night, and on my expressing a hope that the propriety of 
my suggestion the previous day had been strengthened in his opinion 
by subsequent reflection he regarded me with an expression of coun- 
tenance not indeed indicative of anger or excitement but on the con- 
a ary unusually formal and passionless, and said “Mr. Van Buren, 
Thave made it a rule thro’ life never to throw obstacles in the way 
of any man who, for reasons satisfactory to himself, desires to leave 
me, and I shall not make your case an exception.” Without giving 
m time to say more, I rose from my chair and standing directly 
fore him replied in substance that the matter had taken the turn 
most feared and the apprehension of which had so often deterred 
me from broaching it; that he had allowed himself under the ex- 
| citements and embarrassments of the moment to suspect that I was 
Huenced by anticipations of the failure of his Administration and 
a wish to escape in season from the consequences; that in this 
had wronged my disposition and entirely misconceived my mo- 
es; °that I had never felt wish more strongly than I wished then 
t I had a window in my breast through which he might read 
inmost thoughts, but as that was vain and as words on such 
Occasion would have little value I could only oppose my actions 
is distrust. “Now, Sir!” I concluded, “Come what may, I 
Il not leave your Cabinet until you shall say, of your own motion, 
without reference to any supposed interests or feelings of mine, 


° MS. IV, p. 75. 


406 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


that you are satisfied that it is best for us to part. I shall not only 
stay with you, but, feeling that I have now performed my whole 
duty in this particular, I shall stay with pleasure and perform with 
alacrity whatever it may become proper for me to do.” He seized 
my hand, and exclaimed “ You must forgive me, my friend, I have 
been too hasty in my conclusions—I know I have—say no more about 
it now, but come back at one o’clock—we will take another long 
ride and talk again in a better and calmer state of mind.” I found 
him with his usual punctuality already mounted at the hour ap- 
pointed. We went again over the whole subject—he taking the parol 
and I contenting myself with full answers to his inquiries but 
pressing nothing. On our return he asked my permission to con- 
sult with Post Master General Barry to which I agreed adding a 
similar consent in respect to Major Eaton and Lewis. On the follow- 
ing day he told me that they had considered the matter ‘eset 
and had all come to the conclusion that I was right; that they weal 
to be with him in the evening and he wished me to join them. Before 
leaving home I ordered supper to be prepared intending to bring 
them back with me, and after an hour or two with the President 
we adjourned to my house. Up to this time the idea of Eaton’s 
resignation had not been thought of by any one as far as I 
knew or had reason to believe. It was a consummation devoutly 
be wished but one I would have assumed to be hopeless and for that 
reason, I suppose, had never given it a moment’s entertainment, and 
such wonld have continued to be the case if my attention had not been 
called to it by himself. Moreover J never doubted, as I have else 
where said and as the result proved, that my resignation woul¢ 
disarm hostility to him and would thus answer every necessary 
purpose. On the way to my house the, Secretary of War suddenh 
stopped us and addressed us nearly in these words: “ Gentlemer 
this is all wrong! Here we have a Cabinet so remarkable that it ha: 
required all of the General’s force of character to carry it along— 
there is but one man in it who is entirely fit for his place, and w 
are about consenting that he should leave it!” Eaton’s open hearte 
disposition and blunt style left no doubt that he said exactly what 
he thought, but the only answer he received was a loud laugh fro 
the rest of the party. After getting within doors he recurred t 
the matter and asked “Why should you resign? I am the mam 
about whom all the trouble has been made and therefore the on 
who ought to resign.” His remarks again passed without particular 
notice, as the subject in that view of it was not free from delicacy. 

At supper, however, he spoke of it again and, appearing some 
what hurt that his previous observation had not produced a re 
sponse from either of us, said that he was so well satisfied that 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 407 


he was the person who ought to resign, if any one, that he would 
_ do so in any event. I then excused myself for having omitted 
_ to notice his previous intimations on the ground that as his resig- 
_ nation had not been spoken of or thought of before, I had regarded 
_ his remark as a matter of civility to myself, but it being now 
evident that he was in earnest I said he must permit me to ask, 
_ whilst knowing that he would do in the business what he thought 
proper, what Mrs. Eaton would think of such a movement as he 
proposed. He answered promptly that he knew she would highly 


that we should meet again at supper, at my house, the next evening 
and that Major Eaton should in the mean time talk the matter over 
with his wife and report to us. His report fully confirmed his 
statement and it was forthwith agreed that we should both resign 
with General Jackson’s consent, which was obtained on the fol- 
lowing day. Eaton’s resignation was dated before mine because 
he preferred to have it so, but this is a correct narrative of the 
_ entire proceedings. I promised the President to accept the English 
Mission if I did not after consulting with my friends, give him 
satisfactory reasons for declining it, and among my correspondence 
will be found some letters from them upon the subject. In my 
<i of resignation’ I placed the step ‘upon the grounds herein 


approve of it. We then discussed the President’s probable dis- 
position in regard to it, and it was upon my suggestion, arranged 


set forth, saying in effect that the difficulties and embarrassments 
_ which I described could in no way be gotten rid of save by my 
" resignation, or disfranchisement—that was by declaring, in a man- 
“ner to obtain belief and to secure compliance, that I would under 
_ Ro circumstances accept the office of President, declarations which, 
| all other considerations apart, I did not think it becoming in me 
| to make:—a statement which my opponents affected to find difficult 
f _to comprehend. 
_ Some time after our resignations were published—according to 
| my recollection just before my departure from Washington and long 
_ enough after her husband’s relinquishment of office to make her sen- 
" sible of the change in her position, the President and myself having 
_ extended our walk as far as the residence of Mrs. Eaton, paid her a 
"visit. Our reception was to the last degree formal and cold, and 
| what greatly surprised me was that the lgrger share of the chilling 
"ingredient in her manner and conversation fell to the General. Since 
_ iny first acquaintance with her there had been no time when such a 
| change towards myself would have very much astonished me. We 
| staid only long enough to enable us to judge whether this exhibition 


n 4 *Apr. 11, 1831, autograph draft is in the Van Buren Papers. Jackson’s acceptance 
of the resignation, dated Apr. 12 is .1so in the Van Buren Papers. 


ee 


was that of a Egos fia or a matured sentir 
fearly quitted the house, I said to my com 


shrug. As the topic was obviously not attr: 
but I was satisfied that’ our brief interview ha¢ 
convince him that in his past anxiety on her 
overrated her own sensibilities, __ 


CHAPTER XXX. 


_ Among the interesting and critical questions encountered by the 
Administration of Gen. Jackson, altho’ not disposed of before I left 
ashington, the most important was that involved in the principle 
of nullification set up by South Carolina and acted upon by that 
ite to an alarming extent but finally abandoned in consequence of 
firm stand taken by the Federal Government under the direction 
the President. To do justice to the principal actors on both sides 
ha profoundly exciting question it is necessary to look back not 
y to the opening scenes of the Administration but to a still earlier 
geriod. Mr. Calhoun was without doubt deeply moved on the subject 
f the tariff laws and particularly so during the year 1828, which 
s that of the election of Gen. Jackson to the Presidency and also 
f "f the extravagant tariff bill passed the preceding winter. I had 
jpportunities to witness the extent and to become satisfied of the 
sincerity Of his solicitude. He walked me again and again around 
he Capitol and through the streets of Washington, after it was 
known that I intended to resign my seat in the Senate to become a 
adidate of the office of Governor of New York, pressing the sub- 
ec et on my attention and evincing, as I thought, a morbid sensibility 
in regard to it. 
Vith my hands tied by the instructions and well understood 
ense of my State, notwithstanding my individual repugnance to the 
le system I could only inculcate patience and forbearance, advice 


at that time brooding over some energetic movement by which 
then course of legislation might be arrested in a way in which 
= would be less harassed by difficulties arising from his own past 
etion“on the subject. 
mocratic Administrations have always found the tariff a per- 
ag question. The protective system was not in harmony with 


it portions of it too important to be neglected were so hampered 
he pressure and clamor of local and special interests as to make 
ed hostility to it on their part very hazardous and in some 
ces necessarily fatal to their power. These considerations 
Ist they promised advantage to the opposition in the agitation 


410 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. vy. 


of the subject, induced those Administrations to move with uniform 
caution, and if nothing had occurred to disturb the harmony exist- — 
ing previous to the election between Gen. Jackson and Mr. Calhoun 
they would have exerted, without doubt, a restraining influence 
upon® the movements of the latter, coming into his office of Vice 
President as the expected successor of the former, the light in which 
Col. Benton affirms, as of his own knowledge, that Gen. Jackson ~ 
then regarded him. But unfortunately for every interest grounds of - 
difference between them arose at the threshold of the General’s gov- 
ernment. These, altho’ comparatively slight at first, received a 
gradual] but steady increase from well known causes until they pro-— 
duced a thorough estrangement and in the sequel supplanted with 
undisguised hostility a once ardent friendship. “Mr. Calhoun’s in-- 
terest in the success of the Administration grew every day less until - 
a state of things arrived under which his chance for the succession — 
seemed only practicable through the overthrow of the power which 
he had been instrumental in bringing into existence, and this con- 
sideration doubtless influenced, perhaps controlled his action at the 
moment. Having as he thought, and as I thought, justifiable ground 
for the persevering employment of all constitutional methods for the 
overthrow of a system which at that period had reached the sum- 
mit of injustice he resolved to accomplish its destruction at all events 
and by all the means he could command. : 
In the state of mind to which he had been brought by long brood- 
ing over the evils which, in his opinion, oppressed his section of 
the country, and which seemed to become every day more intol- 
erable, and unrestrained for the reasons I have given by the con- 
templation of the hazards to which violent measures would expose” 
his political prospects, he declined to continue the discussion of the 
points involved in the protective policy before the people, avowedly 
hopeless of convincing the majority of its injustice and imexpe- 
diency, but pronounced the argument exhausted and that the only 
remedy, short of revolution, was to be found in State action under 
a construction of the Federal Constitution devised for the occasion 
but which was claimed to have been acted upon before. He as-— 
sumed that no remedial measure could be worse than longer sub 
mission to the course of legislation on the subject. I need not say, 
in the light of our subsequent experience, how wrong was this view 
and how unwise this action. The prospect of success by persever- 
ance in the argument was certainly not very encouraging, but it was 
not hopeless. The right side of many previous important public” 
issues had worn even more unpromising aspects before the truth 
finally prevailed. With so good a cause, addressing himself directly 


° MS. IV, p. 80. 


Boba AD 2: 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. .- 411 


to the principles of equity and the feelings of fraternity which were 
then still strong in the breasts of his countrymen and easily stirred 
to action, and confining his exertions within peaceful and consti- 
tutional limits he had no right to despair of accomplishing his 
object and he could not have failed to acquire high honor and 
durable fame by his efforts. Fair success has since crowned such 
efforts here, whilst in England it has been more signal still—the 
protective policy, which was there, at the time, deemed as well set- 
tled as the principles of Magna Charta and an integral part of the 
British Constitution, having been completely overthrown and dis- 
placed by free trade under the lead of a Statesman of genius and 
energy far inferior to Mr. Calhoun, and using only the weapons of 
Constitutional agitation of clear and practical demonstration and 
of sincere and manly appeal. 

But in that direction there was a lion in Mr. Calhoun’s path 
which he did not possess the right sort of courage to overcome. His 
labours of the character suggested were liable to be enfeebled by the 
consciousness that he was at every step obliged to eat his own words— 
an employment specially unpleasant to one who prided himself 
upon his consistency. There were not many of his contemporaries 
who had done more to secure for the policy of protection a dura- 
ble footing in our system than Mr. Calhoun. The proof of this 
fact is abundantly furnished in our public archives. In this re- 
spect he stood prominent among those referred to by Mr. Hammond, 
of South Carolina, in a late speech delivered at 1 a truly 
great speech, discreet and true, honest and bold beyond any delivered 
in modern days by a Southern man—when he said “the injuries 
inflicted on the South have been mainly inflicted by her own am- 
bitious factions and divided public men.” Those ‘ injuries’ have 
been—or have been so considered by herself—the Bank, Internal 
Improvements by the Federal Government, the Protective system 


and Slavery Agitation. The first and most disastrous, the Bank, 


was brought forward by Mr. Calhoun, advocated by Cheves and 
Lowndes? and other Southern leaders, and finally sanctioned by Mr. 
Madison after it had, as was hoped, received its quietus by the 
glorious casting vote of a Northern man—George Clinton. The 


6 policy of Internal Improvement by the Federal Government was 
- indebted for its introduction into the legislation of Congress almost 


exclusively to the persevering efforts of Southern men. It origi- 
nated with Mr. Calhoun ardently backed by Mr. Clay; the latter, 
in his zeal for its prosecution trying to rob the former of his thun- 


_ der by engrafting Internal Improvements upon his American sys- 


1James H. Hammond at Barnwell Courthouse, S. C., Oct. 29, 1858. 
2 William J. Lowndes. 


412 % AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


tem. Tucker,‘ a Southern man, was Chairman of the Committee 
by which it was brought before Congress with so much éclat in © 
1818. Lowndes and a host of inferior Southern lights, sustained it, 
and President Monroe yielded, after a struggle, his early and bet- — 
ter principles for its advancement. Of their agency in behalf of the 
protective system, quite as much may be said and of Slavery agi- 
tation we shall have a more appropriate place to speak, when it will 
be seen that even there the force of Mr. Hammond’s declaration wil] 
not be found to fail. 

If Mr. Calhoun had been blessed in a larger degree with that great- 
ness of soul which finds gratification in the acknowledgment of 
error—if he had said, openly and frankly, to his Northern brethren, 
I contributed to the introduction of this principle of protection into 
our legislation, believing that it would work to the general advantage, 
but experience has shown that your section of the Country derives — 
advantages from it to which ours can never attain, that it, on the 
contrary, enures to our injury, and that it bears within itself facilities 
for its abuse not at first foreseen but which the love of money will 
always induce those interested to seize upon to make bad worse,—if 
with such declarations, the truth of which could not have been contro- 
verted, he had appealed to the justice and fraternal feelings and obli- 
gations of the North, perseveringly, in season and out of season, as 
Cobden appealed to the landed interest of England, he must have — 
established for himself an enviable renown and for his cause the full - 
assurance if not the immediate enjoyment of triumph. But he seemed 
to attach as much importance to being consistent as to being right— — 
perhaps more, and a large and an unprofitable share of his time, I 
say it with deference to his conceded and unquestionable abilities, was 
spent in defending his successive positions by showing their con- 
sistency with each other. For these and other reasons he was indis- — 
posed to trust himself in the beaten track but sought for a more — 
enterprising as well as a more striking course, one which would over-— 
top all past discussions and processes relating to this subject. In 
this frame of mind his attention was naturally attracted to the mem- 
orable proceedings of Jefferson, Madison, Taylor of Caroline;Nicho- 
las? and their compeers of Virginia and Kentucky in respect to the 
alien and sedition laws, and his ambition, [was] as naturally, fired 
by reflection upon the fame and influence which they contribute 
even to those illustrious names. There is indeed no doubt that in 
addition to a sincere desire to relieve his section from an offensive 
tariff Mr. Calhoun’s action was strongly stimulated by an eager 
emulation, on behalf of himself, his political friends and the State 
of South Carolina, of the honors awarded for those proceedings 


1Henry St. George Tucker. 
2 John Taylor and Wilson Cary Nicholas. 


@ AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 413 
to eh Statesmen and to the States I have named, and if he and 
his associates had adhered to the model by which they claimed to 
be guided that laudable ambition might have been abundantly 
9 oratified. 

_ The anniversary of the birth-day of Thomas Jefferson, a most 
_ appropriate day if such had been his design, was elena for the 
‘commencement of the movements he had in view. The circum- 
stances under which that day was, for the first time, seized upon 
for special commemoration; the extent of the preparations that 
_were set on foot to give to the proposed festival extraordinary 
“celebrity and the names of the men most prominent in those prep- 
arations contrasted with the ominous suddenness of their reverence 
for the memory of Jefferson combined to attract the attention of 
_well informed bystanders and especially of those whose province 
it was to see to the faithful execution of the laws. Neither the 
President nor myself were inattentive observers of these signs, but 
‘made them the subject of frequent conversations. Weighing them 
‘im connection with the°® ambiguous intimations to me and morbid 
speculations of Mr. Calhoun in 1828, my mind was strongly im- 
pressed with a belief that some feeneular and unauthorized pro- 
‘ceedings were contemplated which might menace the stability of 
he Union. We were slow to believe that gentlemen with whom 
the Virginia principles of Ninety Eight had, until quite recently, 
_ been in very bad odor would have become on the instant cordially 
' disposed to carry them out in the pure and catholic spirit in which 
they were originally adopted by that noble old Commonwealth, and 
the suspicion was therefore irresistible that it was designed to use 
the Virginia model and a mask or stalking horse, rather than as an 
armor of defence; and we doubted the As even conceding the 
desire, of some of Mr. Calhoun’s associates, who shared largely in 
his councils and who would be likely to take the lead when acts 
‘of violence became the order of the day, to preserve sufficient self 
control to keep themselves within the pale of the Constitution. 

_ The subject was one which in every aspect required the utmost 
prudence and circumspection on the part of the President, and 
laying both accepted invitations to the Dinner we agreed to meet 
at his office to consider the course proper for him to pursue 
on the occasion. Major Donelson was the only other person present 
at that meeting and became fully advised of every thing that was 
said and determined. The safety and propriety of virtually as- 
uming by the character of the toast to be proposed by the President 
¥ t the proceedings and ceremonies of the day were portentous 
peeneer to the Union, and the question whether any advantage 


° MS. IV, p. 85, 


414 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


might be anticipated from his abrupt and defiant presentation of 
himself as its ready guardian and Champion, were deliberately 
considered and affirmatively decided. The form of his toast was 
accordingly agreed upon and my own, which was expected to be 
the third volunteer, was so constructed as to follow suit with his 
in spirit and tenor. Thus armed we repaired to the dinner with 
feelings on the part of the old Chief akin to those which would have 
animated his breast if the scene of this preliminary skirmish in 
defence of the Union had been the field of battle instead of the 
festive board. 

Less knowledge of the political characters of the men engaged in 
getting up this drama and a very small degree of sagacity in the 
interpretation of their movements would have been enough to satisfy 
us of the justice of our suspicions that the convocation had been 
designed for the advancement of a particular measure—that of nulli- 
fication, rather than for the object that had been avowed, to wit, the 
promotion of the general interests of our party. The prominent 
features in the plan, as disclosed to the perception of any well in- 
formed observer, were 1*t to identify the principles of the measure 
yet in embryo—but fore-shadowed in the toasts and proceedings— 
with those of Virginia in her resistance to the alien and sedition 
laws, and thus to arouse in their support the enthusiasm of her 
representatives and people and of the advocates of the same princi- 
ples in other States, and 2°" to conciliate Georgia with which State 
South Carolina had long nourished hostile relations, by professing 
to adopt principles upon which she had recently acted and by panegy- 
rizing her public men. 

A Virginian was placed in the Chair. Of the twenty-four regular 
toasts all but six or seven spoke of Virginia and of Jefterson—refer- 
ring to, describing and embracing political principles which he had 
at different times avowed and to others which were known to consti- 
tute parts of the political creed of the State. Gen. Hayne, of South — 
Carolina, spoke long and eloquently of the glorious stand taken by 
Virginia in regard to the alien and sedition laws, based the resist- 
ance made by his State to the protective policy upon the ‘ground 
that the old republicans had always sustained and pointed particu- 
larly to the course pursued by the State of Georgia in defence of the ~ 
same principles. Alluding to her controversy about the Indians he ~ 
said that she had “planted upon her borders, under the guidance 
of one of the noblest of her sons, the standard of State-rights, and 
had achieved a great and glorious victory.” 

The President and Vice President were seated near the Chair; my 
position being at the foot of the second table, under the care of my 


1 Robert Y, Hayne, 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 415 


_ subsequently warm friend Grundy whose feelings were then evidently 
_ enlisted on the side of the nullifiers altho’ he took great care to avoid 
E identifying himself with their doctrines. When the President was 
e called upon for his toast I was obliged to stand on my chair to get 
a distinct view of what passed in his vicinity. There was no misun- 
derstanding the effect it produced upon the company neither could 
any sentiment from another have occasioned a tithe of the sensation 
that was witnessed throughout the large assemblage. The veil was 
rent—the incantations of the night were exposed to the light of day. 
Gen. Hayne left his seat and ran to the President to beg him to in- 
sert the word “ federal,” so that the toast should read “Our Ferp- 
ERAL UNION—IT MUST BE PRESERVED!” This was an ingenious sug- 
gestion as it seemed to make the rebuke less pungent, although it 
really had no such effect. The President cheerfully assented because 
in point of fact the addition only made the toast what he had origi- 
nally designed it to be—he having rewritten it, in the bustle and 
_ excitement of the occasion, on the back of the list of regular toasts 
which had been laid before him, instead of using the copy in his 
' pocket, and having omitted that word inadvertently. 
The affair proceeded but the feeling of the guests was plainly 
manifested that the game was blocked. 
Gen. Hayne followed up his advances to Georgia by the following 
_ volunteer toast: 
“The State of Georgia. By the firmness and energy of her Troup 
she has achieved one great victory for State rights—the wisdom 
and eloquence of her sons will secure her another proud triumph in 
| the Councils of the Nation.” 
Gov. Troup* remained silent—notwithstanding that Gen. Hayne 
_ went to him and, as I inferred from the manner of both—for I was 
too far off to hear—urged him to speak. The omission was 
thought deserving of explanation and Mr. Wayne,? of Georgia, 
_ now on the bench of the Supreme Court, attributed his silence to 
_ the fact that he was individually mentioned in the toast: a circum- 
stance commonly regarded as furnishing a necessity for speaking. 
I did not at the time understand the explanation as giving the real 
clue to his silence. Governor Troup was a remarkable man; an 
earnest, well instructed, radical State-rights politician—inflexible 
and in no slight degree impracticable. He was an éléve of the 
severe school of Jackson and Baldwin,* of his own State, being the 
| adopted son of one of them, and having imbibed strong prejudices 
| against the politicians of South Carolina, of the Calhoun School, 
_he had been a party in feeling, if not in act, to the spirited warfare 


George McIntosh Troup, 2James Moore Wayne. 8 Abraham Baldwin, 


416 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. a 


that was for a long time carried on between the “Georgia radicale 
as they were called, on one side, and the “South Carolina latitu- 
dinarians” on the other, through ‘Hie medium of certain articles i in 
a Georgia newspaper over the signature of “ Trio,” and the strictures 
in reply attributed to the pen of Mr. McDuffie, a noble hearted 
man who carried to his erave the injuries received in a duel grow- 
ing out of this contest. 
The nature of the discussions and of the principles advocated by 
the contending parties may be inferred from the following extract 
from the papers attributed to Mr. McDuffie: rere 
The States as political bodies have no original inherent rights—that they 


have such rights is a false, dangerous and anti-republican assumption, which 
lurks at the bottom of all the reasoning in favor of State-rights. 


Gov. Troup saw and understood what was going on around him 
and recognized the hand by which the wires were moved, and doubt- 
less his silence was caused by an indisposition, to use a homely 
phrase, to train in that company. But when called upon from the 
Chair for a toast, he was ready and prompt to show that in devotion 
to State-rights and in distrust and dislike of the Federal Govern- 
ment there was not one among the new or old professors of that faith 
who went beyond him. He gave 

The Government of the United States: With more limited powers than the | 
Republic of San Marino, it rules an Empire more extended than the Roman 


with the absoluteness of Tiberius, with less wisdom than Augustus and. less 
justice than Trajan or the Antonines. j 


° The first three volunteers were: 
—By President Jackson. 

Our Federal Union—it must be preserved. | 
—By Vice President Calhoun. 

The Union—next to our liberty the most dear; may we all remember tha 


it can only be preserved by respecting the rights of the States and distributi in; 
equally the benefit and burden of the Union. 


—By myself. 
Mutual forbearance and reciprocal concessions; thro’ their agency the Unior 


was established—the patriotic spirit from which they emanated will foreve 
sustain it. 


oy 


The common point at which all these toasts were directed h 
Union—is significant of the prevalence and strength of the impre 
sion that the celebration was a movement having special reforalll 
to that great interest. Some of the opposition presses commente 
upon the President’s object with unusual accuracy. Walsh 1 said- 
ks The ¥ President has taken the bull by the horns,” and the Wationa 


° MS, IV, p. 90. 1 Robert Walsh, 


_ AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 417 
encer that “it was as much as to say, in reply to the authors 
of the preceding sentiments,— you may complain of the 
1d perhaps with reason, but so long as it is the law it shall ag 
y be maintained as my name is Andrew Jackson ’—.” If we 
e the address so as to make it applicable to the principal getters 


he meeting that was precisely what the President’s toast was 
ned to say. To that end was it concocted and for that purpose 


CHAPTER XXXI. 


The appointment as Envoy to Russia of John Randolph, of 
Virginia, or, as he described himself “of Roanoke”—became toc 0 
conspicuous a feature of the early years of the Jackson Admin 
istration to be passed by without notice. Early in the autumn ©: 
1829 the President and myself rode out to Arlington to pay a 
visit to Mr. and Mrs. Custis and the conversation whilst we were 
there, turned to the subject of Mr. Randolph, whose name had 
been casually introduced. As we were returning I told my com- 
panion that I had a suggestion to make to him which would a - 
prise him and that his astonishment would probably be mue 
increased when I assured him in advance that the step I was aba ut 
to propose was one which I would neither take myself if I were 
in his place nor recommend to any other President, but which : 
thought he might take altho’ not without hazard. To his puzzlec 
look ean demand for information I replied—‘It is to give John 
Randolph, of whom we have just been talking, a foreign mission ! ” 
He acknowledged his astonishment but expressed a willingness to 
hear my reasons for the suggestion. These I here repeat a 
they referred to the high estimation in which Mr. Randolph w 
held by the masses of the old republicans of Virginia, to his identi ti 
fication with that party from its commencement and his abiding 
attachment to it growing out of his active participation in its ear’ 
contests, to the imposing manner in which he had discharged his 
duties as Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means durim 
Mr. Jefferson’s first term, and finally to his quarrels with Jeffe 
Madison, Monroe and ee which would if he died without s 
further opportunity to exert beneficially the remarkable ca 
ties, intelligence, sagacity and knowledge of men which he pos 
leave the world in the opinion that he had ‘been an impr 
and unprofitable man. I thought that if he were to serve unde 
President with whom he would be very unlikely to quarrel he migh 
render useful services and be enabled to avert from his memor, 
the reproach which would otherwise settle upon it. An object s 
humane and so praiseworthy might, I thought, be appropria e] 

418 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 419 


und hopefully attempted by Gen. Jackson, to which I added a 
strong expression of the satisfaction I would derive from having 
made myself in any degree instrumental] in its accomplishment. 
; My reference to the early struggles of the republicans at a time 
when he was himself in Congress and when he had, as I have before 
ribed, firmly voted with them against the answer to President 
Washington’s speech because Fisher Ames and his co-adjutors had 
so worded it as to compel an endorsement of measures of which 
a ey disapproved, evidently touched a responsive chord in the breast 
£ the President who replied significantly that if he could be satis- 
ed that he could be made useful to the Country he would gladly 
= an office on “ Jack Randolph” that being the appellation by 
which the latter had been familiarly known in those early days. 
he General asked me what we had to offer him; I answered the 
ussian Mission, which, altho’ it would expose him to an unfavor- 
able climate, was on ohtier accounts to be preferred; our relations 
ith that Government being simple and friendly little harm would 
done if it should turn out that we had made a mistake in the 
“selection of the Minister. I added that a commercial Treaty was 
to be made between us in the negotiation of which there could not 
be any difficulty and when that was accomplished our Envoy would 
probably want to come home. To the question whether he would 
sept, I replied that I believed he would notwithstanding his having 
ared that he would never vote for a man for President who used 
ver forks or who had been a foreign Minister: and whether he 
accepted or not he would be highly gr: atified by the offer. 
In a letter to him the President placed the offer of the mission 
upon as favorable a footing as the truth would bear, saying that 
ould be charged with an important negotiation which would 
ire his . attention, and he accepted the appointment with 


decided to recall the actual Minister, Mr. Middleton,* on the 
ground that the duration of his official residence in Russia 
already extended beyond what he considered a proper limit, 
being willing to make the manner of his return agreeable to 
he now communicated his decision to his friend and neigh- 
: in Tennessee, Col. Rutledge,? who was Mr. Middleton’s brother- 
w and to Gen. Van Ness,’ inden a family connection, and left 
them to afford Mr. Middleton an opportunity to terminate his 
sion on his own application. It was in this way that Mr. Ran- 
h’s formal appointment was delayed until the summer of 1830. 


1Henry, son of Arthur Middleton. 
2Henry M. (7?) Rutledge. 
8 John P. Van Ness. 


420 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


I prepared his instructions and a draft of a Commercial Treaty 
to which it was morally certain that the Russian Government wou ld 
agree, and met him, at Norfolk, the port from which he sailed, 
furnish him with aE parol aap ore as I thought eae be : 
useful. Huis friends gave him a public dinner at whieh he appeared 
to great advantage and he left the Country in unusual spirits. 
His whole demeanor and conversation during our interview at Nor- 
folk, served to justify my anticipations of his good conduct when 
he should be placed before the Country in a responsible position like 
that in which he now stood and inspired me with the strongest 
confidence that his Mission would be a successful one. 

But these pleasant expectations were destined to meet with a sad 
disappointment. Distressed by the dangerous illness of his favorite 
Juba and alarmed about his own health, he left St. Petersburgh, 
panic-struck by its climate, for London shortly after his arrival 
at his post, and never returned to it. Other considerations and 
feeling may and very probably did contribute to produce this result, 
but it would now be worse than useless to speculate about them 
We did not even then think it profitable to enquire about them re- 
garding the dénouement as conclusively proving his unfitness for 
the diplomatic service and our mistake in selecting him. Smarting 
under a consciousness of the responsibility he had incurred by h 
precipitate retreat and apprehensive of bemg abandoned by h 
government in the face of Europe he on to an expedient to — 
prevent such a result to which I believe nothing but a morbid 
condition of mind and body would have tempted him—he essayed by _ 
means of a confidential letter to the President to create discord 
between the latter and myself. This we could only regret—but 
it did not occupy our time or relax, in any degree, our disposition 
to do him all the good we could. The flood-gates of denunciation 
and defamation were of course opened upon the Administration by 
the opposition; they had however more ground than usual for then 
assaults and we had no right to expect that they would ° forego 
the opportunity to profit by our blunder. Our attention was di-- 
rected to the discovery of a way by which it might, as far as pos- 
sible, be rectified. It was necessary that he should be sustained 
at least for the time, in order to guard from prejudice the charact 
of our foreign service and, by consequence, of our Government and 
fortunately the facts enabled us to do so with effect. The meeting 
of Congress was near at hand when the news of his flight from & 
Petersburg reached Washington and the subject was thus noticed 
in the Annual Message: 


° MS. IV, p. 95. 


E AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 421 


4 


Our relations with Russia are of the most stable character. Respect for that 
pire and confidence in its friendship towards the United States have been so 
= entertained on our part and so carefully cherished by the present Emperor 
by his illustrious predecessor as to have become incorporated with the 
lic sentiment of the United States. No means will be left unemployed on 
part to promote these feelings and the improvements of which the com- 
bi cial intercourse between the two Countries is susceptible and which have 
derived increased importance from our Treaty with the Sublime Porte. 
q I sincerely regret to inform you that our Minister lately commissioned to 
Court, on whose distinguished talents and great experience in public 
affa I place great reliance has been compelled by extreme indisposition to 
exercise a privilege which, in consequence of the extent to which his constitu- 
tion had been impaired in the public service, was committed to his discretion — 
of leaving temporarily his post for the advantage of a more genial climate. 
= high expectations of the opposition as to the trouble this 
andolphian escapade would cause to the Administration were evi- 
ee, not a little lowered by this treatment of it. I have not for- 
gotten the frankly avowed gratification which it afforded to old 
Mr. Brent, who had filled for many years the responsible office of 
Chief Clerk of the State Department. He had, he said, pondered 
m eer on the question of what could be said upon the point by the 
esident that would relieve the anxieties of his friends, without 
soming to any satisfactory solution, and he complimented me by 
adding that that part of the Message reminded him of Mr. Madison 
" who, he thought, understood the use and value of words better than 
any other man. This was a great deal to be said by a man who 
idolized John Quincy Adams and doubtless the declaration was in 
ne degree drawn from him—whatever may be thought of his 
nion—by a grateful recollection of my having kept him in his 
ce, as I did to the end, thorough old federalist as he was, against 
remonstrances of many of the supporters of the Administration. 
gentlemanly manners and the truthfulness and integrity of his 
er were especially invaluable in the circle of duties he had 
long and well discharged. 
_ When Mr. Randolph read the Message, in London, he set himself 
to work to annoy me nearly as much by his kindness as he had done 
before by the opposite conduct. His grateful impulse found vent 
way thus described in a letter from Washington published in the 
Y. Journal of Commerce, of March 14" 1831 ;— 
have been much amused to day by the appearance among us of the well 
wo Juba, of Roanoke, who brought with him a fine young horse, a present 
the Secretary of State from John Randolph. 
| In the course of our friendly association Randolph had frequently 
spoken to me of his stud of blooded horses, numbering at the time 


1 Daniel Brent. 


4292 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. | ue : 


of his death more than a hundred, and almost as often pressed m 
to allow him to send me one or a pair. More than a year before t: 
occurrence, in answer to one of these requests, I told him that I 


taken to severe horseback exercise and that if he would send me a 
good saddle horse I might accept it, but I heard no more of the 
matter, until the morning referred to in the above extract when I 
was awakened by my servant with the information that a man was 
at the door with a horse for me from Mr. Randolph. When I came 
down I found his man Johnny—the successor of Juba,—with a le 
from Judge Leigh, Randolph’s friend and agent, informing me 
that he had received instruction from Mr. Randolph from London, 
_ to send me one of his five year old colts, which he had done. Havi 
had no communication with him since his confidential letter to 
President I was not a little irritated by this additional complication 
in our relations, and directing Johnny to be taken care of until I 
might have time to decide upon my proper course, I walked over te 
the President and stated the case to him, proposing to return the horse 
to Judge Leigh with a kind note to the effect that I could not con- 
sent under existing circumstances to receive the animal. Referring 
to Randolph’s letter to him I said that altho’ I had, on public ac 
counts, concluded that it was best to take no notice of his conduct as 
it rel aed to me personally, and in reality felt no ill will toward: 
him, I could not think of accepting a present from him. Perceiving 
I suppose my excitement he talked earnestly upon the matter ai 
with his usual good sense. He thought I attached too much in 
portance to it—saying that I had done right in regarding what hi: 
been written in the letter to him as the splenetic effusion of a mai 
suffering under mental and bodily disease, whose future conduc c 
might Sond © a cessation of personal intercourse unavoidable bu 
that it would not be wise to precipitate such a result as I certain 
would do by refusing to accept a present from him. He finally ac 
vised me to write a proper note to Judge Leigh—to put the hors 
in my stable and to trouble myself no further about it; part of whic 
I did and all of which I tried to do. The General wrote a frie 
letter to Randolph in answer to one he had recently received 
him, in which he expressed a kind concern for my welfare, and 
forwarding the reply thro’ the Department I took the occasion t 
thank him for both the horse and the good wishes. 
When I met Mr. McLane at New York—he being on his retun . 
from and I on my way to England—he gave me a lively descrip- 
tion of Randolph’s enmity and of his severe speeches against m 
London and prognosticated much trouble in my future relatio 
with him. As he drew to a close I placed in his hand the folloy 


1 Benjamin Watkins Leigh. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. ADS. - 


letter’ from that gentleman which came out in the same packet 
himself and which had only reached me on the previous day. 
was, of course, a good deal confounded and proceeded to make 
asservations of the accuracy of his statements which I assured him 
Were quite unnecessary and suggested that the givings out to which 
he referred had probably occurred before the President’s Message 
reached London, which he admitted to have been the case. 

 °T am not aware that Mr. Randolph, at any subsequent period, 
spoke unkindly of me unless his saying, shortly before his death, 
when he had been brought very low by disease, that “as we must 
have a Bank he would rather have the existing one at Philadelphia 
than a Van Buren Bank at New York” would be so considered by 
others. I did not take it in that sense myself. He left England 
oner than he intended, arriving at New York in the autumn of 
1831 and proceeded directly to his home on the Roanoke, by the 
way of Richmond. 

In November of that year he addressed his constituents confining 
mself mainly to explanations in regard to his mission and to re- 
marks upon the great falling off in the prosperity, power and influ- 
ence of their State. From that period until Februray 1833 he re- 
mained at home suffering from disease and from real and fancied 


1 LONDON, June 8d, 1831. 
DEAR SIR, 
few days ago I received your very acceptable letter of the 13t® of April, © today I 
informed of your retirement from office, which notwithstanding the intimation with 
which you concluded I was quite unprepared for. At this distance & with my imperfect 
owledge of the course of events at home, it may be presumptuous in me to express 
opinion—but by such lights as I have, the step which you have taken appears to be 
rthy of you as it regards your own character, your friendship for that illustrious & 
+ admirable man, whom I pray God to continue at the helm of our vessel of State, 
the preservation of the political party by whom he has been supported. I read the 
Ts which passed between you on that occasion with intense interest, & with a 
ing that I find myself unable to describe. The course which you have prescribed to 
yourself & the resignation of the other members of the Cabinet will render a reconstruc- 
of that body a matter of difficulty as well as delicacy: presuming as I do that the 
clusion of such as have pronounced opinions in regard to the succession will be a 
ling principle in the formation of the new Ministry. Whatever may be the result I 
most fervently pray that it may contribute to the honour and repose of Gen!. J. and 
the welfare of our common country. 
Of the state of Europe or even of England it would be impossible to give a correct 
ression in a letter. I must refer you to the admirable Journals of London which 
doubt you duly receive. The heroic Poles still hold out. They have been the 
ns of preserving Peace for the rest of Europe, which tamely and most ungratefully 
ds the unequal conflict between them & their gigantic foe. 

be am glad that you are pleased with the horse. If you see our friend Mr. Cambreleng 
resent me most kindly & cordially to him. It is possible that the very wretched state 
. health may detain me another winter in Europe. I need not say that I shall 
.most happy to hear from you & to learn that the disastrous state of things at home 
aken a change for the better. You can in a few lines give me more insight into 
Teal state of things than I could glean from the toilsome & disgusting perusal of 
‘Ss of our filthy newspapers. 

ith my best wishes, believe me Dear Sir your faithful serv‘. & friend 
J. R. OF ROANOKE. 


424 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


Fa i asaiines in the management of his affairs. The President’s Veto 
of the Bank Bill infused in him a momentary vigor and drew forth - 
expressions of the warmest approbation, but the Proclamation in 
regard to the South Carolina affairs brought him once more into 
the political field to oppose what he regarded as its constitutional 

~teresies in relation to the character and construction of the Federal 

Government, and to denounce President Jackson with unmeasured 

violence. He attended large meetings at Charlotte Court House and 

again at Buckingham, fifty miles from his home, in so weak a con- 
dition that he could not stand to speak but was obliged to address" 
them from his chair, 

Without intending to express here any opinion in respect to the 

principles of construction which they advance, of some of which I 

mean to say something hereafter, I cannot refrain from inserting 

the resolutions which he alone prepared and which were adopted 
at those meetings. I do not believe that it was in the power of any 
one of our public men then on the stage of action to set forth the 
principles therein advocated in a manner so precise, lucid, and 
statesmanlike as distinguished those resolutions, and he was then 
only four months from his grave, sinking to it with gradual and 
constant decay. They are a remarkable instance of the exhibitions — 
of the ruling passion strong in death. 

On the 4th inst. there was a public meeting at Charlotte court 
house, within Mr. Randolph’s district, at which he attended, appar- 
ently in a feeble state of health, against General Jackson’s course in 
relation to South Carolina, and offered the following resolutions, 
which were adopted with great unanimity. 


RESOLUTIONS. 


Resolved, That while we retain a grateful sense of the many great and yval- 
uable services rendered by Andrew Jackson, esquire to the United States, we 
owe it to our country, and to our posterity to make our solemn protest against 
inany of the doctrines of his late proclamation. a 

Resolved, That Virginia “is, and of right, ought to be, a free, sovereign and 
independent state,” that she became so by her own separate act, which has: 
since been recognized, by all the civilized world, and has never been disavowed, 
retracted, or in any wise impaired or weakened by any subsequent act of hers. 

Resolved, That when, for purposes of common defense and common welfare, 
Virginia entered into a strict league of amity and alliance with the othe 
twelve colonies of British North America, she parted with no portion of her 
‘sovereignty, although from the necessity of the case, the authority to enforce 
obedience thereto, was, in certain cases, and for certain purposes, delegated 
to the common agents of the whole confederacy. 

Resolved, That Virginia has never parted with the right to reeall the authority 
so delegated, for good and sufficient cause; nor with the right to judge of the in- 
sufficiency of such cause, and to secede from the confederacy whenever she 
shall find the benefit of union exceeded by its evils, union being the means 
of securing happiness, and not an end to which they should be sacrificed. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 425 


Resolved, That the allegiance of the people of Virginia is due to her—that 
_ to her this obedience is due, while to them she owes protection against all the 
consequences of such obedience. 

Resolved, That we have seen with deep regret, that Andrew Jackson, esquire, 

president of the United States, has been influenced by designing counsellors to 

subserve the purposes of their own guilty ambition, to disavow the principles 
_ to which he owed his elevation to the chief magistracy of the government of 
the United States, and to transfer his real friends and supporters, bound 
hand and foot, to his and their bitterest enemies, the ultra federalists—ultra 
Lank—aultra tariff—ultra internal improvement and Hartford convention men— 
the habitual scoffers at state rights, and to their instrument, the venal and 
prostituted press, by which they have endeavored, and but too successfully, to 
influence and mislead public opinion. 

Resolved, That Virginia will be found her own werst enemy, whenever she 
consents to number among her friends, those who are never true to themselves, 
but when they are false to their country. 

Resolved, That we owe it to justice, while denouncing this portentous com- 
bination between general Jackson and the late unhallowed coalition of his and 

our enenvies, to acquit them of any dereliction of principle, and to acknowledge 
they have but acted in their vocation. 

Resolved, That we cannot consent to adopt principles which we have always 
disavowed, merely because they have been adopted by the president, and al- 
though we believe that we shall be in a lean and proscribed minority, we are 
prepared again to take up our cross, confident of success under that banner, 
so long as we keep the faith, and can have access to the public ear. 

Resolved, That while we utterly reprobate the doctrine of nullification as 
equally weak and mischievous, we cannot for that reason give our countenance 
to principles equally unfounded and in the highest degree dangerous to the 
liberties of the people. 

Resolved, That we highly approve of the mission of Benjamin Watkins Leigh, 

- not only as in itself expedient and judicious but as uniting upon the man the 
best qualified, whether for abilities, integrity"and principles, moral and _ polit- 
ical, beyond all others in the commonwealth, or in the United States, for the 
F high arduous, and delicate task which has been devolved upon him by the 
' unanimous suffrage of the assembly, and as we believe the people, and which 
_ he alone is perhaps capable, from all these considerations united in his per- 
son of discharging with success, and restoring this confederate republic to its 
¢ former harmony and union. 

(Signed) JoHN Ranpoirn, of Roanoke, chairman, 


v1 


haat. f° - 


Sie) 


ere er Sree 


va 


In the same feeble condition he caused himself to be carried to 
| Philadelphia by way of Richmond and Washington. At Richmond 
| he made a long speech sitting in his chair, praising Watkins Leigh 
__and denouncing Thomas Ritchie and Daniel Webster. At Washing- 
_ ton he did not of course after his severe denunciations call upon 
President Jackson, but opened a correspondence with him demand- 
| md the return of several letters which he had written to him severely 
__ assailing nullification and nullifiers and speaking of me in a way 
be by no means designed to be complimentary. General Jackson re- 
_ fused to return them and after another equally ineffectual effort 


1 Niles’ Register, 48, 422. 


= 


426 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


- 
+a 
“4 


thro’ his friend, Mr. Goldsborough [Charles W.], of the District, 
Randolph abandoned the pursuit. Col. Benton pressed me to call 
upon him assuring me that he had expressed an earnest desire to see 
me. I did so and was conducted to his bed side by his faithful Johnny. — 
He received me apparently, and I could not doubt sincerely, with cor- 
dial kindness. Altho’ very ill he could always talk without doing | 
himself injury and we conversed for some time principally about 
England and the English people; his life long interest in all things 
having equine relations, whether near or remote, valuable or trivial, 
shewing itself unabated in the course of our interview by his ani- 
mated praises of English saddles and by the expression of a hope | 
that I had brought home with me a supply of them. We shook 
hands at parting and I never saw him again. He caused himself _ 
to be moved to the Capitol where he also took a kind farewell of Mr. 
Clay, telling him that he was a dying man, and he went on to Phil- 
adelphia, hoping to be able to take the packet for England, but he © 
died in that city, a few days after reaching it. . 
Mr. Randolph was an inscrutable man—the most so I ever knew. 
His Indian descent, of which, as I have elsewhere said, he was un-— 
affectedly proud, was in nothing else, not even in his looks, so 
strongly displayed as in his inflexible resistance to every thing like _ 
attempts to read his motives or thoughts on particular occasions 
or to acquire a general knowledge of his idiocrasy. Diametrically 
opposite to that frank disposition which takes pride in ready dis- 
closure of itself in perfect sincerity to whomsoever may have an 
interest in knowing it was the sentiment which influenced him in 
shrouding himself, his motives, his acts, and even his movements 
in mystery, and to resent any attempts, however friendly or well — 
intended, to penetrate it or to understand his character. He was, 
notwithstanding, always a study to me and on one occasion, during 
our long and close intimacy, I endeavoured to avail myself of some 
incident not of course to pry into his secrets but to obtain a glimpse - 
of the inner chambers of the man’s real constitution who was on 
occasions so great a puzzle. He suddenly turned upon me, as if of- 
fended, saying “I understand you, Sir! You are ambitious to look 
deeper into my dispositions than I am inclined to let you—you think 
you understand me already, but you are mistaken, you know noth- 
ing at all about me! There has been but one person in the world 
who understood me perfectly—but one who comprehended my char- 
acter and that person was not of the earth, earthy.” The person — 
he alluded to was his worthy mother, of whom he often spoke and 
always with the utmost love and veneration; but even here he 
adopted ° a mode of expression to prevent me from certainly know- — 


° MS. IV, p. 105. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 427 


ing to whom he alluded by avoiding a description of his or her 
sex. I was naturally not disposed to inquire further either upon 
_ that or upon the principal point. In a similar spirit he guarded 
_ the knowledge of the state of his health as much as possible from 
others. While it formed a principal staple of his daily conversation, 
4 ‘no person, however well acquainted with him, could ascertain any- 
thing very definite or reliable in regard to it. Altho’ this was 
_ partly a consequence of its variable character it was also in a great 
degree an affair of policy. Strange as it may appear to those who 
- were not well acquainted with this strange man his health was one 
_ of his weapons of war in the contentions in which he was all his 
_ life involved. It served as a cloak for omissions which he could not 
_ otherwise satisfactorily excuse and its fitful character put it out 
_ of the power of his enemies ever to calculate safely upon his ab- 
_ sence or his presence among them on any particular occasion. When 
_ he was confined to his bed and to all appearances in the extremity 
- of suffering from disease, there was scarcely ever a certainty that 
he would not suddenly repair to the hall of the Legislature and 
_ take a part in the debates, especially if they concerned a matter 
in which he was interested or in which he could make himself 
felt. 
That he was a man of extraordinary intelligence, well educated, 
_ well informed on most subjects, thoroughly grounded in the history 
- and rationale of the Constitution and of the Government that was 
_ formed under it, eloquent in debate and wielding a power of invective 
“superior to that of any man of his day is unquestionable, but with 
all these liberal endowments he lacked a balance-wheel to regulate 
his passions and to guide his judgment. This grand deficiency 
which the whole course of his previous life had given us strong 
reason to suspect was deplorably demonstrated by the trans- 
‘actions of which we are speaking. Few men had enjoyed better 
opportunities during ten preceding years to form an opinion of his 
character and capacities than myself and the error into which I fell 
betrayed, therefore, an inadequacy of observation or a weakness of 
judgment which I could not too much regret. My mistake was as 
“Ihave said, considering the relation in which I stood to the appoint- 
‘ment, a fair subject roe the animadversion of my political adver- 
saries. They used it to the utmost of their power, tho’ embarrassed 
by the difficulty of assigning any improper motive for the act, or 
any other ground of attack ae an administrative blunder. The 
‘usual and ready imputation of a design to make political capital 
‘for myself out of the arrangement would have been preposterous 
‘in view of Randolph’s utter destitution of political influence and 
it was never made. I might offend one or more of the prominent 


428 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


men of Virginia, who controlled the politics of the State, with every - 
one of whom he was more or less—generally the former—at variance, _ 
by giving him the preference but in no quarter could any influence 
be gained by it or hoped for by any sensible man. I made no efforts’ 
to avoid the political consequences of the act to myself, but my friend — 
the President when it became, at a later day, understood that a trio 7 
of the leading minds of the Country had combined their influence — 
and power to break me down and when charges against me of all 
marketable material were in immediate and active demand, author- — 
ized one of his friends to say on the floor of Congress that I was, 
in no degree, responsible for the appointment of Mr, Randolph, and 
that the fault, if fault there was, lay exclusively at his own door. © 
Certainly, in a constitutional sense, the appointment was his alone, — 
notwithstanding my agency in bringing it about, and Gen. J ackson, 
in such matters, acted, throughout his official service upon the prin- 
ciple to which I have before referred that all preliminary steps — 
on the part of officers subject to his direction were to be thrown out 
of view, so long as he was himself satisfied with their conduct, and 
that the exclusive responsibility for the results rested upon himself. 
But wherever the blame attached it could not amount to much in _ 


a case where no selfish intent was discoverable and where so many 


palliating circumstances existed, 

Mr. Randolph had grown grey in the public service. Of the 
forty four years which, at his death, had elapsed since the organi- 
zation of the present Federal Government, he had, I believe, served 
thirty four in one or other House of Congress, and all but one or two 
of them in the popular branch to which the election was biennial. 
Whatever may have been his shortcomings, by reason of bad health ~ 
and other deficiencies more or less beyond his control, in making his _ 


exertions effectual, the political doctrines and principles which he ad- 


vocated were well adapted to the support of a system like ours—in- 
deed those only by which we can hope to uphold it in its integrity. 
The first year of his service as Chairman of Committee of Ways and 
Means, during the first term of Mr. Jefferson’s Administration had 
illustrated his abilities and his patriotism. It was difficult to doubt 


that a man of his pride and force of intellect, whose perceptions 


were of such sparkling clearness, would fail to improve a fitting - | 
opportunity to atone for his intermediate failures and to make the 


closing scenes of his public life as creditable as possible and how- 


ever hazardous the event proved it to have been it was at least a 
humane and liberal part to furnish him with that opportunity. To 


one of the inducements to this act of favor which influenced both 


Gen. Jackson and myself—but more strongly the former, from the 


circumstance of his having been sooner in the political field than 


myself,—I have already referred, viz: to that suggested by Ran- 7 . 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 429 


lolph’s early identification with the old republican party and his 
ive participation in its memorable struggles. The history of that 
period, the accounts given by both sides, are replete with evidence 
of the efficient part taken by him in the contests of the day and the 
sacrifices to which he was exposed from their violence. The dur- 
able impressions made by his speeches upon the mind of old John 
Adams, whose conduct and character were the constant subject of 
scorching invective, and who, years afterwards, spoke of “the 
Iiant wit, fine imagination and flowing eloquence of that cele- 
ted Virginian,” afford perhaps the most striking illustration of 
ese truths. However Gen. Jackson’s partizan cohesiveness might 
ave been for a time relaxed by his military pursuits and by the 
seduction of Mr. Monroe’s “Era of good-feeling,” his ingrained 
republicanism reasserted its influence on resuming the political har- 
aess and opened his heart to every appeal to the memory of the 
ing scenes and fast associations of his early political life. I also, 
tho’ but a tyro in the school compared with the men of his day, 
remembered well the interest with which, as a precocious politician 
of sixteen, I had read Randolph’s eloquent assaults upon the war 
against France, the provisional army, the alien and sedition laws, and 
the far famed Yazoo frauds. I had in addition, as I have said, 
Eseved a personal friendship and constant personal intercourse for 
ten years with him as close and confidential as could be permitted to 
a who was ten years his junior or as was practicable with a man 
f his temperament. My then personal and afterwards also political 
friend, Harmanus Bleecker, of Albany, gave me a letter of intro- 
ction to Mr. Randolph when I first went to the Senate of the 
United States. I met him, for the first time, at Georgetown where 
ve happened to be making at the same time a morning visit to Har- 
rison Gray Otis and to the interesting ladies of his family. I told 
ot 7 of my letter promising to call and deliver it which I did not- 
+ ithstanding his insisting that the rule of etiquette required the rep- 
rese entative to make the first visit to the senator. From that time 
until I left Congress we were very much together, especially whilst | 
traversing in the saddle the roads about Washington. Altho’ a de- 
Fo ed equestrian I fell far short of him who was as much at home 
a horseback as an Arab. 

% felt myself complimented by his attentions; indeed, notwith- 
standing his peculiar ways, there were very few who were not 
jleased to receive acts of courtesy from him. Undoubtedly he had 
he misfortune to quarrel sooner or later with most of his familiar _ 
ates, but I escaped altho’ I came occasionally very near such 
# catastrophe. ° The thinning out of the Senate whilst he was 


° MS. IV, p. 110. 


430 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


speaking, until no quorum remained, which I have elsewhere de- 
scribed, and which gradually became more common, he took very 
seriously to heart. I have before explained to what extent and 
under what blameless circumstances I once contributed to this opera-_ 
tion, but I thought nevertheless that I could perceive after that 
occurrence faint symptoms of an alienation of feeling on his part, 
and as no one knew the absence of unfriendly design in me better 
than himself I was forced to attribute his pettishness to an obliquity — 
of his: nature which rendered him unable to judge fairly any fea-— 
tures of a matter which had resulted injuriously to him and to 
which the action of his friend had innocently contributed. As 
one day passed the open door of one of the Committee rooms of 
which he had, according to his custom, taken possession to write 
his letters and so forth, he called me in, declaring that he had some- 
thing to say to me. After a few general remarks he took’ up a_ 
letter from his nephew, Dr. Dudley, which proved to treat of 
family difficulties into which he proposed to initiate me. He pro- 
ceeded to read a sentence or two and then to make what he had 
read the subject of protracted comment. I informed him several 
times that business was to come up that day in the Senate to which 
I was bound to attend and proposed a postponement of the residue 
until another occasion, but neither my suggestion nor my impatience 
had the slightest effect upon him. I submitted until the idea that _ 
he was in this way punishing me for my conduct in the other matter 
seized my mind so strongly that I rose abruptly from my seat and ~ 
said, with some warmth perhaps, “Mr. Randolph, I must leave you!” 
He had turned the key of the door to prevent intrusion but now 
promptly unlocked it and stretching himself to the full height of 
his gaunt figure, said, in a measured tone, “Good morning, Sir!” 
I returned the salutation with about equal stiffness and repaired. 
to the Senate chamber where I found that I had been waited for. 
At night I received from him a formally sealed and directed en- 
velope, covering letters from my boys, and other papers which h 7 
had asked to be allowed to read, without note or word of any kind 
from himself, which I considered as denoting the cessation of our 
intercourse. A day or two elapsed before I saw him again, except 
at a distance, but when we did meet he approached me with ex- 
tended hands and a smiling countenance as if nothing had hap- 
pened to disturb our relations. My intercourse with him as a whole 
was very gratifying and the source of agreeable reflections. Though 
occasionally melancholy and irritable he was generally lively and at 
times remarkably fascinating. His friendly notes were frequent 
and amusing. 

I was a good listener, a character which Randolph liked and I was 
not a cross-examiner which he detested; at least not so much of the 


‘= ee 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 431 


~ 


latter as lawyers often become in society from professional habit, 
and of what remains of it I had when I became acquainted with him, 
he did much to cure me. If during our frequent and long rides fp 
‘subjects of conversation were ordinarily of his own selection and 
if his was much the larger share this was because I was scarcely 
ever otherwise than pleased with his discourse and therefore in- 
disposed to interrupt it and not because of any unreasonable lo- 
quacity on his part. He avoided, as a general rule, the subjects 
under discussion in Congress, ace glad to drop them and to 
recreate his mind in fresh fields, except when something of unusual 
~ piquancy was afoot, and, when left to himself, Virginia, her public 
_ men of earlier days, her people and her past condition, the character 
and life of his deceased brother Richard, with England and the 
_ English, were commonly the themes on which he talked better than I 
ever heard another man talk. Nothing could be more interesting 
‘than his descriptions of the former prosperity of the Old Dominion, 
ithe extent and magnificence of the baronial establishments, as he 
called them, especially on the James River and the Appomatox, the 
honorable pride and splendid hospitality and true quality of their 
proprietors and the contrasts he depicted between those halcyon days 
: 4 nd the times in which he spoke. Those who only met him in the 
fields of political contention where harsh or railing censure and 
stinging sarcasm seemed his natural and vital atmosphere could not 
shave been made to believe the degree of sensibility sometimes rising 
‘to the silent tear, which he was wont to manifest when dwelling 
on these topics. 
A notice of a remarkable scene in the early life of Randolph, 
A hich seems appropriate here, renders necessary a reference to the 
political course of Patrick Henry, to whose character and con- 
‘ ‘ uct before and during our struggle for independence history has 
done full justice. To dwell now upon his admirable bearing at the 
latter period when his heroick spirit in behalf of public liberty and 
“hi is efficient efforts to set in motion the ball of revolution established 
claims upon our respect and gratitude which nothing short of posi- 
{ ive dishonor could ever obliterate, would be merely to repeat les- 
sons with which our school-boys are familiar. Clear, straightfor- 
| ward and unflinching in his every act, his course in those days of 
minent peril and of fearful responsibility was in every respect 
h as left no room for doubt or question in the breast of any one 
ong his applauding countrymen. The stand he took in the Vir- 
ia Convention called to decide upon the ratification of the new 
jonstitution was no less spirited, unequivocal and firm, but not 
unanimously approved by those for whom he acted. His dis- 
action with the plan proposed by the Federal Convention was 
unqualified and his hostility to it unmitigated, Others opposed it 


432 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


because it was in their judgment calculated to lead to a consolidated 
government—he regarded it as a consolidation ex vi termini. He 
avowed his preference for the old Articles of Confederation and 
opposed the new ° plan with the ardor and vehemence that belonged 
to his nature and denounced its incompatibility with the rights of | 
the States and the liberties of the People in terms which reminded | 
his hearers of the eloquence of earlier days. He exerted all his 
power to prevent its ratification and failing in that he went into 
the succeeding Legislature where the popularity of his course in 
the Convention made his power supreme, defeated the election of 
Mr. Madison as U. S. Senator (who had foiled him in the Con- 
vention) and secured the election of two gentlemen as Federal 
Senators, whose sentiments in respect to the Constitution corre- 
sponded with his own. By this course he drew down upon him- 
self the hatred of the federal party to the utmost extent and was 
held up to public odium as “a cunning and deceitful Cromwell 
who, under the garb of amendments, sought to destroy the Consti- 
tution, break up the Confederacy and reign the tyrant of popularity 
in his own devoted Virginia.” ; 

The state of mind in which he left the Convention was that with ~ 
which he retired from politics and devoted his time and attention 
to the improvement of his fortune. From that period “till about 
the year 1795 he was regarded as a member of the republican party. 
a favorite of the old anti-federalists who constituted more than 
three fourths of that party, and like them, tho’ dissatisfied with and 
distrustful of the new Constitution, was not disposed to throw 
obstacles in the way of a fair execution of its provisions. ) 

The first surmise to be found in the writings of the republican ~ 
leaders of any attempts to withdraw him from their ranks is con- 
tained in a letter from Mr. Jefferson to Col. Monroe, of July 10th, — 
1796, in which he says,—‘ Most assiduous court is paid to Patrick 
Henry. He has been offered every thing which they knew he would — 
not accept. Some impression is thought to be made but we do 
not believe it is radical.” (Jefferson’s Works.? Vol. 4, p. 148.) 
I have elsewhere referred to the enquiries L made of Mr. Jeffer-_ 
son in respect to the cause of the great change which had taken — 
place in Mr. Henry’s politics, and to his seeming inability or im- 


OMS: TVS, pee tlao~ 

a Notr.—In a letter to Mr. Short! Mr. Jefferson says that Henry’s influence in the 
Legislature was omnipotent—that Mr. Madison, in consequence of his powerful support 
of the Constitution, was defeated for U. S. Senator and that Mr. Henry, to prevent him 
(Madison) from being elected to the House of Representatives, had, in framing the Con 
gressional Districts, tacked Orange (Mr. Madison’s residence) to other counties in which — 
he, Henry, had great influence. 

1Feb. 9 1789. In the Jefferson Papers and printed in part in Writings of Jefferson 
(Washington, 1853), 2, 273. . a 

2 Washington edition, 1854. Original is in the Monroe Papers and a press copy in the — 
Jefferson Papers, 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 433 


isposition to enter into explanations upon the subject. That Henry 
as much fascinated with Hamilton’s financial policy and that in 
he latter part of his life the acquisition of wealth became with 
im a more absorbing passion than politics were nevertheless views 
f his position that I received—the former certainly and the latter 
believe—from Mr. Jefferson, and are considerably strengthened by 
he following extract from a report made to Washington by his 
onfidential friends, Edward Carrington and John Marshall, of the 
nanner in which they had executed the commission which he had 
mtrusted to them to judge of the propriety of offering to Mr. 
lenry the appointment of Secretary of State, with authority so to 
ffer it if they thought best. 
“We know too,” they say, “that he is improving his fortune fast 
hich must additionally attract him to the existing Government 
nd order, the only guarantee of property. Add to this that he has 
© affection for the present leaders of the opposition in Virginia.” 
Had Mr. Jefferson lived until after the publication of the “ Writ- 
ags of Washington ” he would have been able to speak more under- 
fandingly on the subject and have seen the extent of the mistake 
nder which he laboured at the period of his letter to Col, Monroe. 
fe would have learned that as many as three years before the date 
f that letter a plan was set on foot by Gen. Harry Lee, an active 
nd very zealous federal partizan, and at the time Governor of 
irginia, to withdraw Mr. Henry from the republican ranks—that 
, was unremittingly presevered in until the spring of 1799, when 
or the first time and an occasion of intense interest to be presently 
oticed, the latter unveiled himself to the people of Virginia, 
epudiated his State-rights doctrines and avowed himself the friend 
nd supporter of the administration of John Adams, the alien and 
dition laws inclusive, 
_ The history of these proceedings is derived from the following 
| sources: viz; a letter from Henry Lee to President Washington, 
ated August 17th, 1794, to be found in the appendix to the 10th 
sl. of the Writings of Washington, by Sparks, page 560; the 
wer of Washington, same volume, p. 451; a second letter from 
se to Washington, same appendix, p. 561; Patrick Henry to H. 
Lee, ditto, p. 562; a private and confidential letter from Washing- 
| ton to Edward Carrington, vol. 11th p. 78; Washington to Patrick 
Jenry, same vol. p. 81; report of Carrington and Marshall, ditto, 

s 80 & 81, and a confidential letter from Washington to Henry 
an. 15th, 1799, same vol. p. 387, urging him to offer for the 
e Legislature at the approaching election, with the nomination 
f r. Henry as Special Envoy to France by John Adams a few 
| weeks after Washington’s last letter. 

> 127483°—vor 2-20-28 


434 AMERICAN. HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, = 


I will not go into details in respect to the contents of the est 
papers or trace the progress of Gen. Lee’s undertaking from “ 
inception to its final consummation. Those who feel interest 
curiosity in the subject will read the documents and draw thei 
own inferences. Their principal theme was the bestowment of 
office upon Mr. Henry; but I must not for a moment be understood 
to suggest or to countenance the idea that he was capable of arti r 
ing his principles for office. I have no doubt that he was far above 
such meanness and that if any proposition to that effect had been 
understandingly presented to him he would have spurned it with 
the same spirit with which he would have spurned an offer of 
pardon from the Crown for his course in the revolution. Carring- 
ton and Marshall knew as well as such a thing could be known 
that he would not accept the office of Secretary of State which 
they in pursuance of a discretionary authority from President 
Washington, tendered to him. All the actors in these transactions _ 
felt asodeed that he could not, from domestic considerations, talk ke 
any place that would require a residence at the seat of Govern t 
or near any foreign Court. But if Mr. Adams had offered him the. 
seat on the Bench of the Supreme Court which became vacant only 
two months before the offer of the place of Envoy to France ther 
is no room to doubt that he would have accepted it. The pa 
to which I have referred show that during the latter years of I his 
life a concern for the good opinion of his old Commander in Chief ey 
as he was in the habit of calling Washington, engrossed his feel- 
ings. The strong solicitude he he once cherished for the sover- 
eignty of the States, his dread of consolidation, his ‘first prin 
ciple, as he termed it,—‘that from the Bri we have ever} 
thing to dread when opportunities for oppressing us shall offer mm 
seemed to have given place to his anxiety.upon that point. H 
had been made to believe that Gen. Washington considered him 
as “a factious, seditious character,” and that belief was in th 
estimation of Lee the only hindrance to his joining the friends o: 
the Administration. No existing political difference between hin 
and it was ever referred to, in the long confidential conversatior 
Lee says he had with him, as an obstacle to such a course. It 
hence, with high catiaeeion that he learned from Washington? 
letter to Lee that the President’s opinion and feelings in respect t 
him had been misrepresented and that the former remembered witl 
gratitude Henry’s friendly course in the matter of the Con 
intrigue during the war. From similar considerations he recei 
with unaffected satisfaction the offer of a high place from : 
General, altho’ it was one that he could not accept. Mr. He ry 
yielded to these flattering testimonials of respect and confidence 
In pursuance of Gen. Washington’s pressing solicitation, backed 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 435 


as it was by the appointment of Envoy to France, for which Mr. 
é nominated him within a few weeks and before the time 
had arrived for making his decision upon the proposition submitted 
to him, he consented to become a candidate for the General Assembly 
yf Virginia and presented himself at the Charlotte Court House 
in that character. 
_° Few spots have been rendered more famous in the annals of 
party warfare than Charlotte Court House. Randolph’s numerous 
lisplays of oratorical power contributed largely to its celebrity as 
“well before as subsequent to his great contest with John W. Epps, 
Vir. Jefferson’s son-in-law, who had moved into that district for the 
e purpose of ousting him from his seat in Congress, on account 
his opposition to the War of 1812, and who succeeded in his ob- 
t—that having been the only instance in the course of his pro- 
.cted public life in which Randolph was abandoned by his imme- 
te constituents; but on the occasion of which we are now speak- 
it was made forever memorable as the scene of the last speech 
‘of Patrick Henry, in a political discussion between him and John 
ndolph, a beardless youth eligible only by a few months, under 
| the Constitution, to the seat in Congress for which he was a candi- 
date at that his first appearance on the political stage—a discussion 
ich was, as is now known, the consequence of a direct interference 
‘by Gen Washington, then Commander in Chief of the American 
Army, in party politics. 
Mr. Wirt, the distinguished author of the Life of Patrick Henry, 
nd Mr. Garland, the accomplished editor of the Life of John Ran- 
h, have each given vivid sketches of the interesting proceedings 
that day. That of Mr. Garland is the latest and the one upon 
vhich the most attention has been bestowed. This has doubtless arisen 
no small degree from the consideration that while the occurrences 
the occasion could not, in respect to Mr. Henry, have been re- 
rded by any as adding to the lustre of his previous career, they 
‘presented on the part of Randolph, certainly the most interesting 
| and perhaps also the most imposing exhibition of himself in his 
e life. I am not aware that there are any material differences 
tween their statements in regard to facts, and as to the reported 
hes, Mr. Henry’s was taken by Garland from Wirt whilst that 
Randolph had not been perpared when Wirt wrote. 
It is from Garland, therefore, that the following extracts have 
taken: 


MARCH COURT—THE RISING AND THE SETTING SUN. 


it was soon noised abroad that Patrick Henry was to address the people at 
h Court. Great was the political excitement—still greater the anxiety 


° MS. IV, p. 120. 


436 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCTATIC 


vo hear the first orator of the age for the last time. They ca 
hear with eager hope depicted on every countenance. It was. 
had not enjoyed for years. Much the largest portion of those who fi e .S 
that day had only heard from the glowing lips of their fathers ont 
powers of the man they were about to see and hear for the first t 
college in Prince Edward was emptied not only of its students ie? ne 
fessors. Dr. Moses Hogue [Hoge], John H. Rice, Drury Lacy, elo 
and learned divines, came up to enjoy the expected feast, The pees a 
was to answer Mr. Henry, if indeed the multitude suspected that any one | 
dare venture on a reply, was wnknown to fame. A tall, slender, p 
looking youth was he;* light hair combed back into a well adjus 
pale countenance, a beardless chin, bright, quick, hazel eye, bine 1 
small clothes, and fair-top boots. He was doubtless known to 1 
court green as the little Jack Randolph they had frequently seen das 
on wild horses, riding @ la mode Anglais, from Roanoke to Bizarre 
from Bizarre to Roanoke. A few knew him more intimately, but n 
ever heard him speak in public or even suspected that he could mak asp 
“My first attempt at public speaking,” says he in a letter to Mrs. E 
niece, “was in opposition to Patrick Henry at Charlotte March Court, 
for neither of us was present at the election in April, as Mr. Wirt ive 
Mr. Henry.” The very thought of his attempting to answer Mr. Henry se 
to strike the grave and reflecting men of the place as preposterous, “J 
lor,” said Ool. Reid, the clerk of the county, to Mr. Creed Taylor, a f 
neighbor of Randolph, and a good lawyer, “ Mr. Taylor, don’t you 
Johnson mean to appear for that young man to day?” “Never min 
Taylor, “he can take care of himself.” His friends knew his pe 
fluency in conversation, his ready wit, his polished satire, his e 
knowledge of men and affairs; but still he was about te enter on an u 
field and all those brilliant faculties might fail him as they had» 
failed men of genius before. They might well have felt some ansety « 
first appearance upon the hustings in presence of a popular assembl 
reply to a man of Mr. Henry’s reputation. But it seems they had n 
for the result—he can take care of himself. * * * "There also as 
hattan Bolling, the other candidate for Congress, dressed in his s arlet 
tall, proud in his bearing and a fair representative of the én 
which was melting away under the subdivisions of the law that had : 
the system of primogeniture. * * * But the candidates for Gonere 
overlooked and forgotten by the crowd in their eagerness to behold 
the great orator whose fame had filled their imagination for so 1 
“AS soon as he appeared on the ground,” says Wirt, “he was surro 
the admiring and adoring crowd, and whithersoever he moved the 
followed him.” 

Presently James Adams rose upon a platform that had been ere 
side of the tavern porch where Mr. Henry was seated, and proclai 
O yes! Colonel Henry will address the people from this stand, # 
time and at the risk of his life!™ The grand jury were in session 3 3 
ment, they burst thro’ the doors, some leaped the windows and came ru 
up with the crowd that they might not lose a word that fell from the old 
lips. While Adams was lifting him on the stand “ Why Jimmy ”-said he, 
have made a better speech for me than I can make for myself.” 

* He was then in his 26th year, a few months beyond the age required by t 
tion to make him elizible to the House of Representatives, 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN, 437 


. Wirt’s report of Henry’s speech is short. He referred to the 
proceedings of the Legislature of Virginia, declaring the alien 
sedition laws unconstitutional and therefore null and void, and 
that the resolutions of that body had filled him with apprehen- 
on and alarm and had drawn him from his retirement. He insisted 
ut by their adoption the Legislature had transcended the power 
belonged to the State under the Constitution. The enforcement 
F the acts by military power would, he feared, be the consequence 
f those proceedings. He painted to the imaginations of his audience 
fashington at the head of an army inflicting upon them military 
cecution and asked where are our resources to meet such a conflict 
ad where the citizen who will dare to lift his hand against the 
ither of his Country? A man in the crowd, (described as being 
unk,) throwing up his arm and exclaiming “I dare! ”—* No!” 
aswered Mr. Henry, rising aloft in all his majesty, “you dare not 
do it; in such a parricidal attempt the steck would drop from your 
nerveless arm.” 
Proceeding, he asked “whether the county of Charlotte would 
ave any authority to dispute an obedience to the laws of Virginia, 
1 he pronounced Virginia to be to the Union what the county 
Charlotte was to her.” Of the laws in question he said that his 
‘ivate opinion was that they were good and proper, but whether 
cep Stites or otherwise the remedy, he insisted, was “by petition.” 
e closed with a warm appeal to the people in pehalé of union and 
rbearance. 
: ‘When he concluded his audience were deeply affected; it is said 
at they wept like children so powerfully were they moved by the 
phasis of his language, the tone of his voice, the commanding 
‘ sion of his eye, the earnestness with which he declared his 
‘design to exert himself to allay the heart burnings and jealousies 
ich had been fomented in the State Legislature, and the fervent 
anner in which he prayed that, if he were deemed unworthy to 
t it, it might be reserved to some other and abler hand to entend 
s blessing over the community. As he concluded he literally 
- into the arms of the tumultuous throng; at that moment John 
ice exclaimed, “the sun has set in all his glory.” 
“Re ee olph rose to reply. For some moments he stood in silence, 
$ quivering, his eyes swimming in tears; at length he began 
dest tho’ beautiful apology for rising to address the people in 
tion to the venerable father who had just taken his seat; it 
i honest difference of opinion and he hoped to be pardoned 
he boldly and freely, as it became the occasion, expressed his 


° MS. ‘Iv, p. 125. 


438 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. = =” 


sentiments on the great questions that so much divided and agit 
the minds of the people.” 4 
The disposition which it will best become me to make of thi 
speech is a question not free from difficulty. Mr. Wirt’s version 
of Henry’s speech is, as I have said, very short, embraces a fe} 
prominent points of which at least partial cotemporaneous accounts 
may have been found and is therefore free from serious doubt in re 
gard to its authenticity. Such is not, in all respects, the case with 
that which Mr. Garland attributes to Randolph. With candour and 
unaffected modesty he says that he does not pretend to give the la 
guage of John Randolph on that occasion; “nor is he certain tha 
the thoughts are his.” Unless the traditions of Virginia and of tha 
vicinity especially are grossly fabulous the speech actually mad 
by Randolph was one of remarkable power. I knew Mr. Garlané 
who died while yet a young man, well, and knew him to be a mai 
of rare abilities—one fully equal to the task of preparing a speed 
adapted to the occasion, like that which he has credited to Randolph 
and which meets ably and conclusively all the points presented bj 
Mr. Henry. 
Perhaps the most that can be said in favor of its suthentiotiyil 
that it is just such a speech as a man of the capacity subsequent th 
exhibited by Randolph would in all probability have made on si 
an occasion, that it is harmonious with the doctrines and principles 
he professed thro’ life and that in respect to its Constitutional e 
position it tallies admirably with the resolutions he prepared a 
offered at the same place more than thirty years afterwards, will 
I have republished in this work. It is very certain that if the ac 
tual speech displayed as much ability as that which is, with proper 
and honorable explanation, put forth as its representative, the effect 
must have been overpowering upon a mind go sensitive as Henry 
was known to be. Under the circumstances J shall limit myself t 
a single extract from that three hours speech, during which time, w 
are told, the people “ hung with breathless silence on the lips” of the 
orator, and refer my reader for the rest to Mr. Garland’s mo 
interesting book. He tells us that Randolph’s “ youthful appear 
ance, boyish tones, clear, distinct and thrilling utterance, his gra 
ful action, bold expressions, fiery energy and manly thoughis 
struck his hearers with astonishment,” and-that, when he conclude 
Mr. Henry, turning to a by-stander, said: “I haven’t seen the little 
dog before since he was at school; he was a great atheist then,” and 
subsequently taking Randolph by the hand, he said: “Young mai 
you call me father; then, my son, I have somewhat to say unto he 
(holding both his hondeyeeen justice, keep truth, and you ae 
to think differently,” 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 439 


r. Henry, by his declaration that Virginia was to the Union 
; Charlotte county was to her, surrendered every pretence of 
vereignty in the State, a concession which it is only necessary to 
te to ensure its condemnation. Randolph spoke at length of the 
acter and tendency of this extraordinary doctrine; but in re- 
to that as well as to everything Henry had said he treated him 
. a degree of respect and deference which excited the sympathies 
f the people. “TI have learned my first lessons in his school,” he 
; “he is the high priest from whom I received the little aden 
poor abilities were able to carry away from the droppings of the 
sanctuary. He was the inspired Statesman who taught 
to be jealous of power, to watch its encroachments and to sound 
e alarm on the first moments of usur pation.” But to my extract, 
g the principal part of what he said on the subject of the sedi- 
on law: 
And what is that other law that so fully meets the approbation of my 
at able friend? It is a law that makes it an act of sedition, punishable by 
\e and imprisonment, to utter or write a sentiment that any prejudiced judge 
juror may think proper to construe into disrespect to the President of the 
d States. Do you understand me? I dare proclaim to the people of 
otte my opinion to be that John Adams, so called President, is a weak 
led man, vain, jealous and vindictive; that influenced by evil passions 
prejudices and goaded on by wicked counsel, he has been striving to force 
Country into a war with our best friend and ally. I say that I dare re- 
this before the people of Charlotte and avow it as my opinion. But let 
write it down and print it as a warning to my Countrymen. What then? 
bject myself to an indictment for sedition! I make myself liable to be 
igged away from my home and friends and to be put on my trial in some 
nt Federal Court, before a judge who receives his appointment from the 
that seeks my condemnation; and to be tried by a prejudiced jury, who 
e been gathered from remote parts of the Country, strangers to me and 
thing but my peers, and have been packed by the minions of power for 
destruction. Is the man dreaming! do you exclaim? Is this a fancy 
re he has drawn for our amusement? I am no fancy man, people of 
otte! I speak the truth—-I deal only in stern realities! There is such a 
m your Statute Book, in spite of your Constitution—in open contempt 
those solemn guarantees that insure the freedom of speech and of the 
Ss to every American citizen. Not only is there such a statute, but with 
e be it spoken, even England blushes at your sedition law. Would that 
id stop here and say that, tho’ it may be found enrolled among the public 
S, it is a dead letter. Alas! alas! not only does it exist, but at this 
most rigidly enforced, not against the ordinary citizen only, but against 
official stations, even those who are clothed by the people with the 
duties of their representatives—men, the sanctity of whose persons 
be reached by any law known to a representative Government, are 
down, condemned and incarcerated by this odious, tyrannical and un- 
itional enactment. At this moment while I am addressing you, mer 
otte! with the free air of Heaven fanning my locks and God knows 
I shall be permitted to enjoy that blessing— a representative of 
e of Vermont—Matthew Lyon his name—lies immured in a dungeon, 


440 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


not six feet square, where he has dragged out the miserable hours of a p 
tracted winter, for daring to violate the royal maxim that the King can 
no wrong. This was his only crime—he told his people, and caused it 
be printed for their information, that the President, “rejecting men of a 
experience, wisdom and independency of sentiment,” appointed those who 
had no other merit but devotion to their master; and he intimated that 
“the President was fond of ridiculous pomp, idie parade and selfish avarice.” 
I speak the language of the indictment. I give in technical and official 
words the high crime with which he was charged. He pleaded justifica- 
tion—I think the lawyers ¢call it—and offered to prove the truth of his allega- 
tions. But the Court would allow no time to procure witnesses or counsel ; 
he was hurried into trial all unprepared; and this representative of the people, 
for speaking the truth of those in authority, was arraigned like a felon, con- 
demned, fined and imprisoned. These are the laws the venerable gentleman 
would have you believe are not only sanctioned by the Constitution, but de- 
manded by the necessity of the times! &¢, &e. 


To describe the errors of Patrick Henry is no attractive task, and 
I will dismiss that branch of this retrospect with a single question; 
is there at this day, or has there been for fifty years past, during 
which we have seen as much of party violence as was ever before 
seen, one responsible man to be found, within the boundaries of 
this wide Republic, who would deny the right of a State to express. 
thro’ ‘its Legislature, the opinion of its people against the constitu 
tionality of an act of Congress, or who would propose the reenact- 
ment of the alien or sedition law? z 

The right of the historian to canvass without reserve and withou 
offense the acts and characters of deceased Statesmen ° is too wel 
established and has been too extensively acted upon to be called i 
question, and in regard to them, the restraints of the maxim de mor 
tuis &e. are complied with when the right is exercised in a waj 
and at a time to avoid giving pain to surviving relatives and friends 
but in the case before us no occasion is presented for an inquiry 
into the boundaries of this right. How muchsoever those who hav 
succeeded to Patrick Henry may dissent from the views he ex 
pressed, or disapprove of the course he pursued on a particular o¢ 
casion, all right minded Americans will forever gratefully che: 
the recollection of his overshadowing services to their country, ag 
rejoice in the conviction that nothing in his life or character 2 
tached dishonor to his name or can cause a blush on the cheeks 0 
his descendants. The apparently inexplicable circumstance that 
man whose early sympathies in the cause of human rights were § 
much deeper and stronger than those of most of the leading me 
of his time should, in after life, have become blind to the tendene 
of the measures he then approved, or insensible to their effects up 
that cause is an enigma which will doubtless in the progress of tim 


° MS. IV, p. 130. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 441 


_ 
when facts are more fully disclosed and better understood, be solved 
a way consistent with the undisputed integrity of his character. 
ht tending to that result has already been shed upon the subject 
> successive developments of traits in the personal disposition 
and habits of Mr. Henry not before so publicly known or properly 
appreciated. Of those best acquainted with him personally and with 
lis public career, Mr. Jefferson ranked among the first and sur- 
feel him longest, and of all Henry’s contemporaries it is due to 
r. Jefferson to say that there has not been one more active in the 
promulgation of facts which redounded to his fame, or, as I had 
self an opportunity to observe, more indisposed to enter into 
isitions on the subject of such parts of his public life as he 
ir. Jefferson) could not have approved, notwithstanding his general 
lingness to answer questions upon any subject and to tell not 
nly the truth but the whole truth. A large share—I may say the 
largest—of the statements so creditable to Mr. Henry were derived 
from letters written to him? by Mr. Jefferson. ; 
_ When asked by Mr. Wirt for some account of Mr. Henry’s mind, 
uformation and manners in 1759-60, when Mr. Jefferson first peeania 
Se aainted with him, the latter thus alae 


We met at Nathan Dandridge’s in Hanover about the Christmas of that winter, 
and passed a fortnight together at the revelries of the neighborhood and season. 
His manners had something of the coarseness of the society he had frequented ; 
is passion was fiddling, dancing, and pleasantry. He excelled in the last and 
it attached every one to him. The occasion, perhaps, as much as his idle dispo- 
sition prevented his engaging in any conversation which might give the measure 
xither of his mind or information. Opportunity was not wanting, because Mr. 
Campbell was there, who had married Mrs. Spotswood, the sister of Col. 
dridge. He was a man of science and often introduced conversations on 
entific subjects. Mr. Henry had a little before broken up his store, or rather 
had broken him up, and within three months after he came to Williamsburgh 
his license and told me, I think, he had read law not more than six weeks.” 


5 Again Mr. Jefferson said, towards the close of his life, to Mr. Levitt 
is, an American Consul at St. Petersburgh, in the presence of 
cholas P. Trist, who noted it down at the time, 


Virt says he (Henry) read Plutarch’s Lives through once a year. I don’t 
ve he ever read two volumes of them. On his visit to Court he used always 
t up with me. On one occasion of the breaking up in November, to meet 
nm in the Spring, as he was departing in the morning he looked among my 
$s and observed “ Mr. Jefferson I will take two volumes of Hume’s Essays 
try to read them this winter.” On his return he brought them, saying that 
had not been able to get half way into one of them. (Jefferson’s Complete 
Vol. VI, p. 487.) 

fis great delight was to put on his hunting-shirt, collect a parcel of overseers 
such like people and spend weeks together in the piny woods, campaigning 


eaning William Wirt? 
pfferson to Wirt, Aug. 5, 1815. Im the Jefferson Papers and printed in Jefferson’s 
(Washington, 1854), VI, 483. 


2 sete” 5) " 


a ae 


449, AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


at night and cracking jokes round a light-wood fire. Jt was to him that we wei é 
indebted for the unanimity that prevailed among us. He would address the 
assemblages of the people at which he was present, in such strains of native — 
eloquence as Homer wrote in. I never heard anything that deserved to be 4 
called by the same name with what flowed from him; and where he got that © 
torrent of language is inconceivable. I have frequently shut my eyes while he } 
spoke, and when he was done asked myself what he had said without being able — 
to recollect a word of it. He was truly a great man, however—one of enlarged , 
views. (Randall’s Life of Jefferson, vol. 1, p. 40.) 

Mr. Henry was not a student in any sense and all accounts concur 
in describing him as a man who, in all probability, read less than 
any other in his State occupying anything like the same position in 
society. That with the tastes, habits and proverbial bonhommie 
_ ascribed to him he should devote sufficient time to study and reflec- 
tion upon the principles of the structure and administration of 
Governments to lead him to adhere to his opinions with a fidelity 
proportioned to the strength of his convictions of their truth and 
wisdom, was not to be expected and did not happen. Instead there- 
fore of regulating his movements by a professed political system, 
for the formation of which he was rendered incompetent by the laws: 
of his nature, he became a man of impulse and suffered his course to 
be shaped by the feelings of the moment. These were always honest 
and if the questions that produced them were of an exciting character 
he executed his resolves with a spirit and power rarely equalled. 
The revolution and the stirring scenes to which it gave birth pre- 
sented the great occasions of his life. Stung almost to madness by 
the unjust pretensions of the Mother Country—by her deafness to 
remonstrances which for ability, eloquence and conclusiveness of 
argument were never excelled by the State papers of any Country, ~ 
and by the remorseless cruelty with which she sought to enforce her 
wantonly oppressive demands, he threw his whole soul into the con-— 
test, pressed forward in debate and by his fiery and vehement native 
Bingaene! roused and invigorated the spirit of the Country and | 
crowned his name with unfading laurels. The question as to the pay- 
ment of the British debts excited kindred feelings. Moved by the 
impoverished condition to which the American debtor, his neigh- 
bours and friends, had been reduced thro’ the tyranny ae the British 
Government, and thinking it morally right that the author of th 18 
debtor’s inability should be driven to assume his responsibilities, he 
again embarked in the discussions which grew out of that disturbing: 
question with something of the ardour that characterized his exer- 
tions in the cause of fhe revolution of which this was an outshoot, 7 
and acquired a degree of fame by his oratorical displays second only 
to that awarded to his splendid services in that cause. 

-In the Virginia Convention called to decide upon the ratification 
of the Federal Constitution he was, to all appeurance, quite a ; 


= ae 
a 


Pik” 


ind AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 443 


agi ated, and, in the opinion of the patriotic, but, in respect 
he questions before that body, misjudging anti-federalists, ac- 
almost as much credit as was allotted for his part in the 
jlutionary drama. With all my respect for that class of poli- 
founded on convictions of the purity of their motives and 
great usefulness at that and subsequent trying periods in 


tory, I have never been able to draw any such impression 


against the sacred instrument which he had devoted to 
on the same weapons that he had employed during the revo- 
but with vastly different results. His efforts were favored 
‘by the state of the times nor by the nature of the cause. An 
%t by a powerful monarch to enslave his Country was an oc- 
when noble daring in resisting was demanded by the fearful 
es of the hour—when inspiriting appeal, trenchant sarcasm 
yundering invective were as useful and as necessary in the 
] as the trumpet, the sword and the cannon in the field,—as 
ble to the hearts and judgments of an excited people, who, 
desire for vigorous measures in great crises, are always 
ance of their representatives. But the Convention was de- 
‘to be a conclave of grave Statesmen, convened at a period 
profound peace, to deliberate upon a question indeed of the first 
portance but of a local character, undisturbed by the interfer- 
f foreigners; a question in which all who participated in its 
yent had an equal interest, and which was not so clear, on 
side, as not to admit of honest differences of ° opinion, which 
re to be decided by the weight of argument. Whilst every thing 
at fell from the orator of the Revolution, which breathed the 
ght spirit and was well directed against the common enemy, was 
ecrated, in the estimation of his sympathizing hearers, by the 
on and by the circumstances under which it was uttered, the 
ats, the illustrations, and the advice addressed to the Con- 
were all maturely considered, applied to the important busi- 
) be acted upon and digested by calm and capable men. 
‘repeat with deference and with unaffected reluctance that I 
never been able to rise from the perusal of Mr. Henry’s 
in the Virginia Convention, and I have tried it more than 
ith an opinion in their favor when compared with those 
men opposed to him. It is to impressions that must have 
de upon the mind of Washington by those discussions that. 
attributed his cautious, tardy and confessedly distrustful 
seedings in respect to Henry at a time when he was, beyond all 
disposed to compliment him highly if he could do so safely. 


= : ° MS. IV, p. 135. 


444 AMERICAN HISTORICAL soca < Pa . 
It is not, I think, possible that the former can have read ‘the m 
dictions poured out upon an instrument which bore his name, 
was recommended for adoption over his signature and for prong Ne 
cess of which he was so solicitous, and can have reflected upon t 
reasoning by which they were attempted to be justified—to s 
extent, at least, incoherent and to a much greater, inconclusive— 
without forming an opinion of the most durable character adverse 
to Mr. Henry’s adaptation to the discharge of highly responsible 
official duties. He had, as he avowed, strong personal inducements 
to treat him kindly, Henry having in a very creditable spirit stepped 
forward in defence of Washington at the time of the Conway in- 
trigue—an occasion always remembered by the latter with intens¢ 
interest. The political affinities once so close between Henry an 
Jefferson had been sundered, a circumstance unhappily not in 
palatable to Washington, as we have a right to infer from 1 
manner in which the fact was communicated to him by his co: 
dential friends; and yet six years were suffered to elapse bef 
the pressing solicitations of Lee were crowned with success : n 
even then the remarkable circumspection he observed and the s 
curities taken against mistakes—safeguards of themselves well cal 
culated to defeat the contemplated negotiation—go far to sustail 
my impression of the real state of Washington’s mind. 

But I pursue this point no farther. If the latter years of # 
Henry’s political career were not in harmony with those es 
ceded them it is enough that they furnish no ground of i 
ment of his integrity, and that he lived to disprove the censures ¢ 
upon his principles in early life by those with whom he 1 
the time of his death, in full political communion. It is enough fi 
his fame—for the fame of any man to be known and remembered 
his admiring countrymen as the companion and co-adjutor i be 0 
revolutionary struggle of Washington, Jefferson and the A ses 
who, if he was prevented by peculiar and uncontrollable traits: 
temperament and constitution from rising to their level as a 
statesman, did not fall below any of those illustrious men in 
intelligent and devoted patriotism. 


a 


r 


CHAPTER XXXII. 


t TI sailed from New York on the execution of my English mission on 
i the 16th August, 1831, in the packet ship President, accompanied 
by Mr. Aaron Vail, the Secretary of Legation, and by my son Mr. 
John Van Buren. "There were only three toe passengers, among 
them an apparently amiable and certainly modest and retiring young 
gentleman who was a son of the celebrated Duke of Otranto. 
Suddenly and I may say unexpectedly transferred from the tur- 
moil and contentions of Washington—never perhaps more rampant 
‘than at that moment—to the quietude of a midsummer Ocean, I 
experienced sensations which tho’ well remembered I would not find 
‘it an easy matter to describe. For more than a quarter of a century 
“preceding the day on which I stepped on the deck of the “ Presi- 
dent” there had scarcely been one during which I had been wholly 
exempted from the disturbing effects of partisan agitation, too often 
of the most bitter description. Whether as a subordinate and 
doubtless, at times, over-zealous member of the political party in 
which I had Bhnast literally been reared from childhood, or as its 
leader for many years in my State, or as a Senator in Congress, active 
‘and ardent in Federal politics, or in the Cabinet of Gen. Jackson, 
first in point of rank and second to none in the confidence of its 
‘Chief, the responsibility and anxiety growing out of my successive 
Positions, tho’ varying in form had always absorbed my time and 
‘my faculties. During the two years immediately preceding my depar- 
ture there had been few working days which had failed to bring their 
load of care to my door; the laborious occupation required by the 
details of the President’s ‘Message, the political and official demands 
‘upon my attention regularly and plentifully emptied upon my table 
from the mail-bags with the spoken alarms of timid croakings of 
complaining and rarer congratulations of satisfied friends by which 
every public man, resident at the seat of Government, is doomed to 
be beset—these were but new representations upon an enlarged scale 
‘of the same general features which had characterized my whole pre- 
{viens life. These constantly recurring sources of excitement had 
now, one and all, been suddenly closed. The first morning at sea 
came unaccompanied by any fresh supplies of the stimulating ail- 
445 
|. 


| ys 


— 


i » A oe 


446 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, ee 


ment to which my mind had been accustomed, and one val de .y 
followed another only to carry me further ina the sight and the 
sound of the political strife and labour in which I had core 0 
ceaselessly and prominently participant. : 
When the first mixed feelings produced by this sudden and great 
change had sufficiently subsided my attention was naturally directed 
to a careful review of the more recent stirring scenes thro’ which I 
had passed and of the steps which I had thought it proper to take 
to meet them. The result of this retrospect was an unhesitatme 
conviction that the course I had pursued had been the wisest with- 
in my power—that which was best adapted to do the greatest at- 
tainable justice to every interest which it was my duty to respect. 
The momentary inconvenience to which I had exposed one of the 
truest friends man ever had by my resignation, my sense of which 
had been quickened by the scenes thro’ which I had passed with 
him in its progress, was a source of sincere regret. That act had 
also led to other consequences, more particularly applicable to my- 
self and to some extent injurious; but both seemed to me to have 
been unavoidable results of a step which was imposed upon me by 
considerations I was not at liberty to disregard, and I was confident 
that they would be more than made good by the advantages of my ~ 
action to other and higher interests. Strengthened by this convic- 
tion and satisfied with the past, the time and the situation seemed 
favorable to a definite settlement of my future course. I have al- 
ready said that by accepting the mission to England I rena 
myself as having virtually abandoned whatever chance I might 
have acquired of reaching the Presidency, and that I had so i 
formed Gen. Jackson. Pace and experience forbade the expect: 
tion that any political party would voluntarily encounter the risk 
of selecting as its candidate an individual peculiarly obnoxious to 
its Be acareee and of whom strong jealousies were cherished by 
rival leaders within its own camp, after he had himself released it 
from even the appearance of obligation imposed by previous mutual 
relations and had left those rivals in undisputed possession of the 
field of competition. In the calmer moments I now enjoyed I 
could think of no aspect in which that opinion could be considere 
that would cast a doubt upon its correctness. To have maintai 
the advance towards the Presidency at which I had arrived whe 
I threw up the office of Secretary of State, the effectual course would 
have been to have retired absolutely from all public employment 
and to have entered upon the practice of my profession and the life 
of a private citizen. The disinterestedness of my motives would 
thus have been placed above the reach of cavil, and a majority of 
the people, eagerly attached to the President and indignantly re- 
senting the injustice he was made to suffer, would, at the proper 


i 


: 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 447 


time, have demanded my elevation as the suitable reward for the 

sacrifices I had made to relieve him and to promote his success. 
The dispassionate reconsideration of the °subject, in my then 

favourable position for making it, only confirmed these first im- 


" pressions; and to discard, totally and forever, the idea of becoming 


_ President became therefore the fixed and settled purpose of my 
mind. 


That I was able to come to that conclusion with perfect equanim- 
ity was attributable in some degree to. impressions in regard to 
the advantages and disadvantages, the pleasures and annoyances 


_ of public life derived from a full experience, of which I have often 


> 


“spoken. This was in truth the state of my mind at the time, however 


hard of belief it may seem to those among my contemporaries who 


_are still on the stage of life and who ee me as the “ magician ” 


I was called—never so much in my element or so happy as when 


: employed in concocting and advancing political intrigues. I must 


iy 


not be understood by anything I have here said as undervaluing the 
honor, dignity and usefulness of the Presidential office. No ae 
ean citizen can fail to regard that position as, in every respect, the 
‘most exalted as it is the most responsible Pani trust that can be 
conferred on man, for the acquisition of which no sacrifices, on the 
part of one competent to discharge its duties, can be deemed too great 


which do not include the sacrifice of honor or morality. But the 


extent to which personal happiness and enjoyment will be promoted 
by its possession is a question to be solved by the taste and tempera- 


ment of the incumbent. There are men, and not a. few, who derive 


so much pleasure from the mere possession of great power that any 
degree of dissatisfaction caused by its exercise is not too dear a 
‘price for the coveted indulgence, and the personal adulation which 
is sure to follow the footsteps of authority while it lasts fills the 


: ‘Measure of their satisfaction. Those better regulated minds, how- 


| 
: 
| 


ever, whose gratification on reaching that high office is aie 
derived from the consciousness that their countrymen have deemed 
them worthy of it and from the hope that they may be able to 
Justify that confidence and to discharge its duties so as to promote 
the public good, will save themselves from great disappointments 
by postponing all thoughts of individual enjoyment to the comple- 
tion of their labors. If those whose sense of duty and whose dis- 
Positions are of the character which alone can fit them for that 
Station look to secure much personal gratification while swaying the 
rod of power they will find in that as in all other human calculations 
and plans “ begun on earth below,” that 


The ample proposition that hope makes 
Fails in the promis’d largeness. 


<4 


° MS. IV, p. 140. 


<= 


448 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


At the very head of their disappointments will stand those in- 
separable from the distribution of patronage, that power so dazzling 
to the expectant dispenser, apparently so easily performed and so 
fruitful of reciprocal gratification. Whatever hopes they may in- 
dulge that their cases will prove an exception to the general rule 
they will find, in the end, their own experience truly described 
by Mr. Jefferson when he said that the two happiest days of his 
life were those of his entrance upon his office and of his surrender” 
of it. The truth of the matter may be stated in a word: whilst 
to have been deemed worthy by a majority of the People of the 
United States to fill the office of Chief Magistrate of the Republic 
is an honor which ought to satisfy the aspirations of the most am- 
bitious citizen, the period of his actual possession of its powers and 
performance of its duties is and must, from the nature of things, 
always be, to a right minded man one of toilsome and anxious 
probation. 

In these opinions and feelings I had become more than ever 
confirmed before the termination of my voyage. Under their in- 
fluence I resolved to limit my future public life to a residence for 
a few years at the Court to which I was accredited, in the per- 
formance of public duties entirely congenial with my habits and” 
disposition, and which I hoped to make useful to my Country an@ 
creditable to myself, and after their expiration to return to my 
home, if permitted by Providence and to the pursuits in which 
my last years have been employed and from which I have deri 
more true, happiness than I have ever before enjoyed. It was im 
the full belief that such was to be the chart of my future life that_ 
T landed in England and with such views I would, in all probability, — 
have returned to my native land but for a transaction already ak 
luded to and which will unavoidably become the subject of further 
comment hereafter. ss 

My reception by the King “and his Ministers was cordial—as it 
then appeared to me, particularly so. But the latter impression is 
not uncommon on the minds of our Ministers arriving at Europe: 
Courts. Removed as we are from the rivalries and consequent jeal-_ 
ousies and, in some cases, ill will which are always more or less 
affecting their relation with each other, they have more seldom rea- | 
son to qualify the exhibition of entire cordiality in the reception 
of our diplomatic representatives. In England this is perhaps espe 
cially the case, and I doubt whether in any other Country the grea 
body of the people enter as largely into the policy of their Govern 
ment by exertions to produce upon the representatives of forei 
Governments favorable impressions towards their own. In additi 
to the good dispositions thus common and creditable to the Govern: 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 449 


and people of England there had been features in the past 
tions between them and Andrew Jackson which served, at the 
ne of my mission, to give increased earnestness to those feelings as 
rded him, . 
the Presidential election of 1824, Gen. Jackson was far from 
ying a definite position in relation to the antagonistic political 
ciples by which the two great parties in the Country had profess- 
9 be governed. The large vote he received was mainly produced 
‘a general admiration of his military character and a wide 
read conviction of his integrity in all things. To these consid- 
ions were added dissatisfaction with the influence of the caucus 
em which had acquired considerable force in all quarters. His 
vote was therefore, to a greater extent than had ever before 
rred, 2 mixed one given by former adherents of all parties. But 
political chaos thus produced, altho’ increased by other causes, 
as much sooner arrested than was anticipated. Justly alarmed by 
® latitudinarian doctrines advanced by Mr. Adams as the basis of 
s Administration, the supporters of Mr. Crawford, constituted of 


affording them strong political encouragement to pursue it. One 
he consequences of this step was a withdrawal from his side of 


very general reorganization of those who had supported Jefferson 
id Madison against Mr. Adams’s administration and in favor of 
ae election of Jackson. 

The Money Power of the Country saw in this conjuncture an un- 
ielding opposition to its supremacy, and the Bank of the United 
; especially, a like resistance to the extension of its charter. 


defeat his election. A large portion of the stock of the Bank 
eld in England, principally by bankers and by the gentry, 
ing noblemen of distinction, many of whom had free access 
ot Government and were capable of influencing its action in 
/not inconsiderable degree. This interest, by reason of the danger 
which it was alleged to be exposed fou the election of Gen. 
‘son was regarded as a store-house from which, with the en- 


q - 127488°—vor 2—20——29 


450 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, — t 


couragement and sympathies of the entire monied interest in _ 
land, the Bank might expect effective aid in the struggle 

which it had resolved forthwith to enter. Accordingly it commenced 
its labors, thro’ the medium of its English friends and portions of 
the English press, to prejudice the ministry and the public mind 
of Great Britain against Gen. Jackson, and to cause it to be be- 
lieved throughout the kingdom that his election would be the pre- 
cursor of much ° trouble and possibly of war between the two 
Countries. These efforts were, in the first instance, quite successful, 
and in various ways exerted an extensive influence upon the can- 
vass. Not all the selfish schemes and intrigues and immoral in= 
fluences however, which could be set in motion and brought to 
bear under the auspices of the Money Powers of both Countri 

could resist the wide spread and deep seated popularity of Jacks a 
His election produced great alarm in England but the forebodings 
out of which it sprung were speedily and happily falsified by legit- 
imate means. England was, fortunately, represented, at the time, 
near our Government by Sir Charles R. Vaughan, a practical, in 
telligent and thoroughly honest man, who, altho’ sympathizing, as 
almost all foreign ministers do here, with the party then in oppo- 
sition, was ‘too sensible a man to act upon the representations t at. 
had been made to him in respect to the new Presidents general 
feelings towards England at the moment when his election 
secured and when his foreign policy was about to be authentically 
indicated by himself. Steps already referred to were taken at the 
earliest practicable day after the complete organization of the new 
Cabinet to bring the whole diplomatic corps in communication with 
the President elect and to afford them more reliable opportuni 
and better facilities to measure his dispositions as well as his capaci 
ties than could be derived from hostile sources. These Sir Charles 
embraced with a sincere desire to arrive at the truth and it did 
not take him long to become convinced of the extent to which the 
General’s character and temper has been misrepresented, or to sat- 
isfy himself that as long as his Government confined its claims to. 
what was right it could desire no better man to deal with 
President Jackson. These views he lost no time in communicatir 
to his Government and I need not add that they produced dec 
and gratifying effects. The early apprehensions of the Bri 
Government, the process by which they had been suspended 
finally dissipated and the gratification experienced on finding them 
to have been unfounded were freely referred to in my interviey 
with the King and his ministers, and always with unaffected satis- 
faction. On the occasion of my last visit to him at Windso = 


--——— 


. 


° MS, IV, p. 145. 7 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 451 


ey itiam took me aside and described to me the extent to 
Hi classes of his subjects had been alarmed by the news of 
General’s election. “But”, he said, “I kept myself free from 
alarms, for I have made it a rule thro’ life never to condemn 
tried man, and, in respect to such matters, I regarded Mr. 
se bag he called him) “as placed in that position. I said 
who expressed to me their apprehensions, I will judge Mr. 
m by his acts; I have done so and I am satisfied that we 
Ih ay = reason to complain of injustice at his hands.” 

hen such feelings enter the breast of John Bull either towards 
eraments or towards their subjects or citizens it is not 
is ; nature to suppress them. Nor did the disposition evinced by 
King and by the people to acknowledge Gen. Jackson’s justice 
manimity appear to be in any degree weakened either by 2 
ion of the severe encounters which had taken place between 
m the War of 1812, or by the animosities and events of an older 
A people less generous and highminded might allow them- 
to be thus affected, but I did not on any occasion witness the 
aon of such prejudices on their part. I have, om the contrary, 
ard them speak of the triumphs which the fortune of war 
mn to our arms at their expense in the way in which a brave 
, conscious of its strength, could afford to speak of those by 
it had been occasionally defeated; a concession in our case 
s made less difficult and less unpalatable by the considera- 
E the extent to which we were descended from a common an- 
The Duke of Richmond, speaking of the battle of New 
told me that his regiment was engaged in that action, hav- 
a to the United States immediately after the 
3 of the war on the Continent, and that he had been 
y prevented from accompanying it, as it had been his 
n to do, in which case, he added, with a hearty laugh, he 
l - probably have never enjoyed the pleasure of taking me by 
and in England. He said “it cannot be denied that you flogged 
e, but we do not think the worse of you for that!” He spoke 
that occasion, I doubt not, the feelings of his Countrymen gen- 

Ih ei am sure that he did so far as my observation extended. 
Meere respect for the character of Gen. Jackson, and an earnest 
hat liberal and friendly intercourse should be cultivated 
sen the two Countries were not only prevailing but active feel- 
n the part of the Government and people of Great Britain 
fiod of my arrival, and consideration of the close rela- 
ime between the General and myself, of which they were 
med, doubtless had its influence, before they kmew any- 
= me personally, in securing the marked courtesy and kind- 
2 which I was treated during my entire stay im that Country. 


? a I n , | = 
- i 8 85 og Ds + bc | naa ee is fb © © MM | , 
et ~ foe | ] is : . | 


BeSEREES 


452 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


The question of the North Eastern boundary had just been de- 
cided by the umpire, and there was nothing to be done at the time, 
at London, in regard to it save to obtain some explanations and 
avowals on the part of the British Government which the President 
thought might facilitate his own action upon the subject, and 
which were promptly made on my application. Beside the ordinary 
and constantly accruing business there was no point of special int- 
portance in our national relations that demanded attention except 
that of Impressment, a subject which was, on both sides, regarded 
as possessing a degree of importance not subsequently realized. It 
had been, before and after the war of 1812, elaborately discussed 
in several successive negotiations by some of the ablest minds of 
both Countries but without satisfactory results. The effect of our 
increase in numbers, reputation and all elements of national strength 
since that period, and of the certainty of war upon the first exer- 
cise of the right claimed, in removing apprehensions of future 
trouble from that source were not then foreseen. The negotiation 
of a satisfactory arrangement in respect to it, often before attempted, 
was made the leading point in my instructions. The President’ 
had allowed me a liberal participation in their preparation, and, 
believing that non-essential obstacles in the way of former nego- 
tiations had been removed, I entertained strong hopes of success 
in that on which I proposed to enter. Several interviews took place 
between Lord Palmerston, then Minister of Foreign Affairs, and 
myself, in which the whole subject was talked over with much free- 
dom and candor. Views equally liberal in their general bearing 
with those recently acted upon by the British Government in re- 
gard to the right of search question, were expressed in those inter- 
views by his Lordship in the sincerity of which I placed entire 
confidence. That the preservation of pacific and cordial relations — 
between the two countries was an object of more importance to 
the welfare of both than the claim of either in relation to the 
subject matter under consideration was a starting point in our 


deliberations and we did not doubt that a way could be devised by . 4 


which the rights of both to the services of their seamen in time 
of peace could be secured without a resort to irritating proceed- 


ings of any description, and thus a prolific source of contention 


be removed. All that seemed necessary to the fruition of these 
expectations was a more eligible condition in the affairs of England 
to prosecute the negotiation. The conferences of the representa- — 

tives of the principal powers of Europe, upon whose deliberations 
the question of peace or war was supposed to depend, hardly less — 
than England herself were convulsed by the fierce agitation of the — 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN, 453 


great measure of Parliamentary Reform brought forward by Lord 
Gr rey’s administration. The extent to which this subject employed 
the time and required the active attention of the Ministry can 
l be imagined. They consequently desired to delay definitive 
4 : jon upon any other the immediate settlement of which was not 
of pressing necessity. It was moreover apprehended that 
it BNE be neither ssfo. nor expedient: to bring before the Coun- 
; y, at a period of such violent excitement, a measure in respect 
to which its sensibilities had been on previous occasions® deeply 
aoved, and with which large portions of its people believed its 
val supremacy intimately connected. It was feared that no proj- 
ect in relation to 2 question so liable to be made a disturbing one, 
owever wisely devised and right in itself, could escape, if brought 
ward at the moment, the general vortex of partisan prejudices or 
would be judged upon its own merits. These considerations were 
introduced with suitable delicacy by Lord Palmerston as furnish- 
img reason for postponing further action upon the subject of our 
consulation until after the settlement of the Reform Question, and 
erceiving their weight and fully believing that the Government 
would be successful in the great domestic controversy which im- 
pended, and would thus be enabled to act in our matter with less em- 
jarrassment, I concurred in the suggestion for delay. 
“Lord Palmerston afterwards informed me that the King had 
commanded him to express his satisfaction with the course I had 
ursued upon the subject, and I have never doubted that my utmost 
ishes would have been realized if their success upon the reform 
question had been. unqualified and if I had remained at the post 
assigned to me. The rejection of my nomination by the Senate 
within a month or two presented imperative reasons for abandoning 
Ie negotiation. The news of that rejection reached London during 
le evening before the Queen’s first Drawing Room of the season, 
7 was published the next morning in the newspapers. The fact 
ea proceedings of the Senate had been carried on with closed 
S Was stated in a way which considered in connection with the 
larity of the accounts in the different journals justified the 
rence that the original had been prepared in the United States 
| had been mischievously concocted. Those who were not aware 
the executive business of the Senate is always thus transacted 
id naturally infer that the charges upon which its decision had 
been founded imputed crime or, at the least, some offence partaking 
Mf that character. I had strong reason for suspecting the agency 
bf an American, then in London, in the contrivance, but as my 
Sroof was not positive I do not mention his name Finding myself 


° MS. IV, p. 150. 


= 


at 


454 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


Drawing Room and to keep to my bed for the day and had 
my mail to be brought to my bed room. Struck by the unusu 
number of my letters, I selected, from among several on whic 
recognised a handwriting familiar to me, one from my trusty frie 
Chur chill C. Cambreleng, then a representative in Congress fr 
the city of New York which first informed me of the action of 
Senate in these terms: 


WasHineton, 27 Jan’y. 1832. — 

My Dear FRIEND, ; 
I most sincerely congratulate you on your rejection by the Senate—23 to 
and by the casting vote of the Vice President; Tazewell & Tyler voting for 
and Hendricks, of Indiana, Hayne, Miller, Poindexter and Moore, of Alaba 
against you—Bibb & Prentiss not present, both I presume consulting non 
inclinations. 
I consider this as a providential interposition in your favor. A more reckl 
act was never committed by men in their senses—indeed, altho’ I had ard 
desired it, I could not persuade myself to believe that their passions wo 
drive them into a measure the inevitable result of which might have been 
by a schoolboy. You may imagine how admirably they were drilled w 
Ruggies, Tomlinson, Johnston, Seymour and Robbins? voted against you. 
votes were precisely as they should have been—we could not have had t 
better.—Poor Hayne had laid himself on the grave of Calhoun—and Webs: 
Clay die in each other’s arms. The former conducted his opposition > 
dignity—the latter with something of violence—the abuse came from Miller, 
So. Caro. one of Calhoun’s barkers; but the thing is admirable—you will be 
Y. P. in spite of yourself—and you will ride over your adversaries, or ratl } 
you will drag them after you @ l’Achille. In the midnight of the Senate thi 
have done the deed—but “Birnam wood will come” &¢. &e. - 
- Come back as quick as you can—we have no triumphal arches as ip anc 
Rome, but we'll give you as warm a reception as ever Conqueror had. 
Sincerely yr. friend 


C. C. CAMBRELE 


I placed implicit confidence in the source of this communieat 
and whatever was wanting in it to complete the picture of the whe 
transaction my knowledge of men and things at home was suflici 

to supply. I rose instantly and, at least temporarily, relieved 
my indisposition by the gimales administered by such news, I j 
Mr. Washington Irving, who then resided with me, and the Se 
of the Legation at the breakfast table. They had read the acce 
in the journals and were, of course, not a little disturbed by 
I handed Mr. Cambreleng’s letter to Mr. Irving, referred to the 
formation given him by the servant of the state of my health 
said that I thought it would notwithstanding now be necessary t A 


1 Littleton W. Tazewell and John Tyler of Virginia; William Hendricks; RB 
Hayne and Stephen D. Miller of South Carolina; George Poindexter of Mississippi; 
briel Moore; George M. Bibb of Kentucky, and Samuel Prentiss of Vermont. 

2Benjamin Ruggles, of Ohio; Gideon Tomlinson of Connecticut; Josiah S. Jol 
of Louisiana ; Horatio Seymour of Vermont, and Asher Robbins of Ohio. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 455 


I should attend the Drawing Room. He considered it desirable if it 
was possible and would not involve a too great sacrifice of feeling. 
The necessary orders were accordingly given and we proceeded to 
complete the reading of a budget of letters, most of them from 
friends at home and similar in sincerity and spirit to that which I 
have inserted above. 

On my arrival at the Palace I unexpectedly found Lord Palmerston 
in the room set apart for the use of the Diplomatic Corps engaged in a 
conversation with those who had arrived of which I was the subject. 
He immediately took me by the hand, and, leading me into a recess, 
told me, in substance, that having received on the previous evening 
a despatch from Mr. Bankhead, the English Chargé at Washington, 
informing him of what had taken place there in respect to myself, 
he at once transmitted it to the King who had sent for him at an 
early hour and commanded him to see me before the commencement 
of the ceremonies of the day and to communicate to me the views 
he had taken of the affair. It was, he said, far from His Majesty’s 
habit or desire to meddle in any way in the proceedings of foreign 
Governments in respect to matters which did not affect his own Coun- 
try, nor was it his intention to do so on the present occasion; but 
being satisfied from the information he had received that the pro- 
ceedings of the Senate had been extensively founded on political and 
partisan considerations and established nothing that ought to im- 
pair the respect he entertained for me, he thought it due as well to 
the President as to myself that he should say so at the earliest practi- 
cable moment. To this the King had been pleased to add that I had 
been long enough in England to know that no class of her public 
men were exempted from experiencing the excesses of party spirit, 
and that they thus became the more capable of understanding and 
duly appreciating them when they occurred elsewhere. What His 
_ Majesty desired was that I should feel neither disquietude nor em- 
_ barrassment but rest entirely at ease in regard to my standing with his 
_ Government and himself. I was of course highly gratified by these 
_ seasonable and considerate proceedings on the part of the King and 
_ by Lord Palmerston and thus expressed myself in terms which I 
: thought called for by the occasion. 

The reigning Sovereign with the members of the Royal Family 
occupy at Levees and Drawing Rooms, a stationary position before 

_ the throne. The company, preceded by the Diplomatic Corps, enter 
the Throne Room in procession and exchange salutations with the 
Royal Circle in passing and go out at another door, except such as 
are entitled to remain in the Presence, as it is called, and. these, 
consisting of the Ministers of foreign and the home Governments 
and a stated few beside form in group in front. The only occasions 


456 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


on which any of the unprivileged company stop in their progre 
before the Royal Circle are when presentations are to be made 
other permitted duties to be performed, or when any individual 
addressed by the Sovereign, in which latter case the movemel 
of the procession is arrested until the conversation is closed by 3 
appropriate bow on the King’s part. He detained me long enoug 
to express in very kind terms his regret at what had happen 
affecting me and a hope that I would remain in England for son 
time ° after the expiration of my mission, and so forth. The Duke 
Sussex, standing same distance from me, but towering in his here 
lean proportions above all the company, exclaimed in a loud voice: 
“What is this, Mr. Van Buren, that I have read in the papers! 
hope it is not true!” I was too far from him to reply in words ar 
could only assent to the authenticity of the news he referred to | 
motions on which he added—“ all I can say is that I am very sor 
for it.” Similar assurances of good will were expressed by t 
Queen and by other members of the Royal Family, which w 
friendly salutations from various other sources made the mornil 
pass more agreeably than I could have anticipated. 
Nor were the exhibitions of such feelings confined to the 
ernment to which I had been accredited, and to those attached . 
Several gentlemen of the opposition, whose acquaintance he 
not before made, stepped forward to shew me civilities. Sir Rob- 
ert Peel, with whom I had as yet had no intercourse, left a card 
for me the next day and, as soon as I returned it, sent me an in} 
tation to dinner which I accepted. The Earl of Westmoreland, one 
of his political friends, did the same and informed me, thro’ ] 
son, that Sir Robert would meet me at his house if I could accept 
his invitation, and that he would be pleased to present me to othel 
gentlemen with! whom he thought it would be agreeable to ne 
become acquainted before I left England; but my engagements for 
the short period I intended to remain put it out of my power t 
avail myself of the Earl’s s friendly attentions. 
Not content with his previous acts of kindness the King, at ny 
audience of leave, expressed a desire that I would pay a visit 
the good Queen and himself at Windsor Castle before my depat 
from the Country. The severe illness of a near relative of the ual 
then on a visit to the Court, put it out of his power to receive 
at that moment, but if her health should improve in season I 
Palmerston, he ev would apprise me of the fact and of the tim 
when my visit would be acceptable. This was done and I spent t 
days at the Castle upon as easy and familiar a footing with its im 
mates as could have been the case in any private family. 


° MS. IV, p. 155. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN, 457 


Palmerston was requested to attend the King during my stay and 
dined with us both days, remaining over the night of the first, and 
the King had also the goodness to direct the attendance of my friend, 
for such he truly was, Sir Charles Vaughan, who, by his command, 
continued during my visit at the Castle and returned with me to 
the city. His Majesty also took the keys and shewed me many of 
_ the most interesting parts of that venerable and noble pile. The 
Queen went with us to Virginia water, and on the morning of our 
departure, the King on foot and the Queen in her carriage took 
_ us to the cottage on the slope—a building planned by themselves 
_ and finished throughout according to the Queen’s taste, and they 
‘ directed my attention to its simplicity in comparison with what the 
_ King called the magnificent structures of “his luxurious brother, 
George IV.” It was on this occasion that he made to me the com- 
munication, before referred to, concerning the impressions which 
had at one time generally prevailed about Gen. Jackson, and his own 
course in respect to them. To this spot my carriage had been sent 
_ and there we took leave of our royal host and hostess after a few 
words from the King expressing, for himself and for the Queen, 
the best wishes for my safe return to my native Country and for 
my future welfare. In my carriage I found four handsome colored 

# engravings representing the Castle, the different points from which 
| the views had been taken being noted in pencil, in the Queen’s 
i handwriting, at the foot of each, and on one of them the window 
' of the room I had occupied being marked, a circumstance, to which 


i) 


ae ae 
. 


- 
> - 


| she had directed my attention while at the Cottage. After the 
| King’s death she sent me, thro’ Lady Wellesley, a sketch of his life 
_ with a full account of its closing scenes. 
. I was told by some of my diplomatic brethren after my return 
. that an invitation to the Castle, as a visitor, was a mark of respect 
which had before been confined to members of the rank of Am- 
'_ bassador and the representative from Hanover, and that they thought 
_ mine the first case of departure from that rule. How this was I 
) know not;—I allude more particularly to these matters than I 
if might otherwise have done, not only because they were, under the 
| ae circumstances, peculiarly grateful in themselves but also 
_ as marking the signal failure of the designs of my enemies so far 
: as they were aimed at my personal humiliation at the Court to 
: which I had been sent. 

On the day the news of the rejection of my nomination appeared 
‘in the journals Prince Talleyrand sent me an invitation to meet 
a few friends at his home in the evening. I found a small and 
select party, and among them Lord Auckland, then a member of 
| the Cabinet and subsequently Governor General of India. He ex- 
) tended his hand to me very cordially and congratulated me upon 


458 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. . 


the treatment I had received from the Senate. Th rem: 
altho’ myself inclined to regard the affair in the light he su 
I could hardly have expected such a view to be taken of it by 
stranger and at so great a distance from the theatre of actio1 
which he replied, promptly —* Yes, yes, I take the right view 0 
it! In all my experience I have seldom known tiie career of § 
young man in your position crowned with marked success who he 
not been made, in the course of it, the subject of some sue 
outrage |” 

Apropos of this mention of Prince Talleyrand, a circum 
occurred in our intercourse which perhaps May amuse my read 
as much as it amused me and which may be not without some us 
in estimating the character of that celebrated man. Perceiving a 
I thought, a disposition to treat me with marked kindness I visite 
his house as often as the habits of society in relation to persons ii 
his position would justify, and was always received with cordialif 
by himself and his agreeable niece the Duchess de Dino. His cor 
versation was, I need hardly say, an unfailing source of high g -ati 
fication, only qualified by the necessity we were under of troublin 
his niece with the office of interpreter as he did not speak Englis 
nor I French. I was so much struck by the extraordinary ciret 
stance that a diplomatist so distinguished and constantly in servi 
should not have acquired the language of a Country with whi 
his own was in juxta-position and where so much of his time hi 
been spent as to express my surprise to Lord Palmerston and 
ask him whether this ignorance was not in some degree assume¢ 
and I ventured at the same time to make some enquiries as to t 
extent to which the Prince’s mind had been affected by his grea 
age. To my first question Lord Palmerston answered that in 2 
his intercourse with him they invariably spoke in French, and th 
they did so on the assumption that it was made necessary by # 
Prince’s ignorance of the English language. He added th 
idea suggested by me had riot infrequently occurred to hi 
and he thought it quite likely that the old diplomatist, in req 
the exclusion of the latter medium of communication from 
discussions, looked, in a degree at least to the advantages, uno 
edly considerable, to be derived from having his negotiations 2 
ducted in his own tongue. On the other point he was decided 
of opinion that, tho’ already an octogenarian, Talleyrand’s men 
faculties had not yet suffered the slightest deterioration. H 
sagacity, quickness of apprehension and the piquancy of his v y 
seemed rather to increase with his years and were, he said, ¢ 
stantly and strikingly displayed in the National Conference 7 
which they were then engaged. 


=< 


fe 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 459 


sent at a debate in the House of Lords when the Marquis 
erry made a violent attack upon Talleyrand. He had 
er taken his seat than the Duke of Wellington rose and, with 

Ge and fluency quite unusual with him, said that the ob- 
s of the Marquis, on account of the fondly relations ex- 
between them and the general accord in their political 
‘made it necessary that he should without delay disavow 
est participation in the sentiments which had fallen from 
d. He had, the Duke said, been associated with the dis- 
d man, who had been so harshly spoken of, in transactions 
- gravest character, involving the temporal ° interests of man- 
| to as great an extent as any that had ever been acted upon and 
felt no hesitation in saying that he had never been called to act, in 
manag gement of public affairs, with a man who had dischaxped 
ies imposed upon him with a more liberal or faithful spirit. 
found him indeed assiduous in his efforts to obtain what he 
ed to be due to his own Country but never wanting in respect 
rights and interests of other Nations. Satisfied that his 


n ischarging highly responsible public duties in England, he 
b i to be his duty to correct the mistake into which his noble 
had unhappily fallen, as far as his own experience and capac- 
tc estimate the characters of public men enabled him to do so. 
ning a strong confidence in the integrity and candour of 
Duke this declaration, made with a warmth and earnestness by 
eh his hearers were greatly excited, went far to remove from my 
|mind unfavorable impressions in regard to Prince Talleyrand’s 
rity and good faith in which I had participated in common 
with al large portion of the world. I will here, also, take occasion 
t ion that this improved view was greatly strengthened by a 
ion had long after, at my own house, with Marshal Bert- 
who had been Napoleon’s close companion and friend, both 
ba and St. Helena, remaining with him till his death and en- 
g his fullest confidence to the last. That upright and every 
wol rthy man, notwithstanding the strong distrust in regard to 
alley rand which Napoleon carried to his grave and recorded in 
his will, entertained opinions favorable to the honesty and sin- 
t hs the former similar to those avowed “i the Duke of Well- 


am perhaps wandering too far from my promised anecdote 
however is a short one. Having received from the worthy 
of the “‘ President ” two saddles of American venison, as T 
wit leaving England, I sent one to the Duke of Sussex and 


° MS. IV, p. 160. 


460 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


the other to Prince Tallyrand. Returning to the Audience Ch 
ber, after taking leave of Lord Palmerston, I found the Prince 
=a occupant. He looked around, obviously, in search of some p 
son on whom he might call to interpret between us, but, seeing 
one, he smiled and, without the slightest, embarrassment and in ¥ 
tolerable English, entered into conversation on various subjects, ¢ 
cluding by thanking me for the venison and inviting me to d 
with him next day and partake of it. I had made my arrangeme 
to leave in the morning and was therefore obliged to decline 
promised to call upon the Duchess de Dino and himself for lea 
taking in the evening, which I did, but without again having 
pleasure of hearing him talk English. 

A year’s residence in a Country, however great the facilities | 
joyed to that end, is, at least, an inadequate period for the format 
of entirely Eile opinions of its public men. It is therefore 

without real diffidence and much hesitation that I say even the hi 
that I do say about those who came more particularly under 
observation. But as the opinions I formed, however hasty, ¥ 
quite unprejudiced deductions from what I saw and heard I ver 
ture on the expression of them, trusting that they will be indulgentl 
suffered to pass for what they are a . 

Lord Grey, whose character as a Statesman has been the subjec 
of much observation, was at the time Prime Minister. I saw hi 
under circumstances better calculated perhaps to exhibit his 1 
character and to give the measure of his capacities than any 1 
had occurred in his previous career. I allude to his conduct of 
Reform Question, and his leadership in the debate upon the Rei 
Bill in the House of Lords. I chanced to be present when he m 
his celebrated appeal to the Bench of Bishops and denounced Wit 
much eloquence and unsparing severity sentiments which he charge 
to have been uttered by the partisan Bishop of Exeter. In his opei 
ing speech the Earl entreated the Right Reverend Prelates to cm 
sider what their condition would be before the Country if a meast 
on which the Nation had fixed its hope should be rejected by but 
slim majority of the lay Peers and its fate be consequently decide 
by the votes of the heads of the Church. Those Right Revere 
Prelates had, he said, shown that they were not indifferent or ima 
tentive to the signs of the times by their introduction of measur 
for effecting some salutary reforms in matters relating to the ter 
poralities of the Church. In this they had acted with a wise for 
thought and evinced their consciousness of the fact that the eyes: 
the Country were upon them, as well as a proper sense of the nece 
sity of setting their house in order and preparing to meet the comm 
storm. He implored them to follow on the present occasion the sai 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 461 


adent course. ‘This earnest and polished invocation was made to 
de a scarcely concealed menace of the gravest character by which 
relates were profoundly moved. It had, as was alleged, drawn 
m one of them, the fiery Bishop of Exeter, a declaration—whether 
that floor or in a pastoral letter or in some other public form I 
not now remember—that the course pursued by his Majesty’s Gov- 
ent in their support of the Reform measure was of a character 
ll fitted to expose the stability of the Crown to danger. This im- 
ted avowal was brought to the notice of the Lords by Earl Grey, 
g an excited stage of the debate,—I believe on the night before 
@ final division on the Bill in the House of Lords. He denounced 
ehemently and in scorching terms as eminently disloyal in its ten- 
ey, inconsistent with the allegiance due to the Throne from the 
“Rey. Prelate, as amounting, substantially to an invitation to 
ection, as a kind of moral treason and exhibited with elo- 
sence and power the shocking impropriety of such a sentiment from 
of the heads of the Church. The Bishop’s bench was, at that 
ae, directly behind that of the Ministers. Lord Grey soon turned 
mmd, thus facing the former and standing within a few feet of 
m, with the Marquis of Lansdowne on one side of him and the 
ike of Richmond on the other, both members of the Cabinet and 
th domg what they could to increase the excitement, by cries of 
*! hear! which were re-echoed by the supporters of the Govern- 
it and retorted by the opposition. The aroused Bishop had risen 
his seat and without symptom of flinching gave back to the Earl 
» fiercest glances of resentment and defiance. 
his scene occurred at a late hour of the night—or rather an 
ly hour of the morning—whilst I stood on the steps of the 
irone, near the bench of the Bishops, the place assigned to the 
eign ministers, and a more exciting one I have never witnessed. 
Harl Grey was a man of noble stature and dignified address. 
colleague in the United States Senate, Mr. Rufus King, had 
lously described him to me as being, upon the whole, the most 
iposing and impressive speaker he had heard in England. Such 
i” the conclusion at which I arrived and altho’ to my mind 
! idea, of an ultimate and superior obligation to his “order ”— 
. ever chivalrous and unselfish the sentiment in him, the occasion 
its utterance considered,—compromised the strict integrity of 
i whig principles, he was, without doubt, always and under all 
ibumstances a patriot and an honest man. 
1¢ Duke of Wellington was not in power during my residence 
mgland, and my intercourse with him was limited to a formal 
nroduction and interchange of personal civilities when we hap- 
~ meet. He was nevertheless to me, of course, a subject of 


462 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


much interest and observation. His unqualified stand against tl the 
Reform Bill, with the best reasons to believe that its passage 01 
that of Soniotes very much like it was desired by a large majori 
of the Nation, and the firmness and fortitude with which he si a 
tained the popular rebuke were of themselves, aside from his di iS- 
tinguished military carreer sufficient to attract to him the attention 
of foreigners. That he was sincere in his opinion that neither | 
welfare of his Country nor the happiness of its inhabitants wou 
be promoted by that measure no intelligent and unprejudiced ob- 
server of his character and conduct could doubt. Yet in setting up 
and adhering to that opinion against the will of the Nation, con 
stitutionally expressed, he made himself for a season exceedingl 
odious to the masses. 4 
° The usual demonstrations of popular discontent in England, sue! 
as breaking his window, pelting his carriage with mud, and so fort 
were directed against him without stint but without shaking b a id 
nerves or producing the least effect upon his spirit or hola bc 
maintain the position he had assumed. It was not until his juds 
ment was satisfied that farther attempts to resist the popular w 
thro’ the power of the Crown must endanger the peace of the Cou m 
iry, if not the stability of the Throne, that he declined the hon 
tendered to him by the King and, retiring from the field, advise: 
his Sovereign to give the reins of Government into the hands of 
opponents. ‘7 
T returned to England at that critical moment, and just before | th 
Duke abandoned his attempt to construct a new administration upo 
the principles he espoused. 
The decision of a majority of the House of Commons is the o1 
constitutional expression of the opinion and wishes of the peopl 
England. That expression is not binding either upon the Crown 0 
upon the House of Lords except so far as is provided by the Co ast: 
tution which concedes to each of them rights and powers p 
above the control of the Commons. But its opinion is neverth 
the recognised constitutional exposition of the popular will, and 
branch of the Government, representing the numerical and ph. 
strength of the Nation, had unequivocally pronounced i in favor of 
material change in the representation of the people in the House: 
Commons. The Duke, acting as the First Minister of the Cre 
had on a former occasion declared, in substance, that there s 
be no such reform and it was now proposed by the King to : 
him to the power of which he had been divested through the exereh 
of the popular will with the avowed intention of counteracting a 
defeating that will thro’ the instrumentality of the powers 1 


° MS. IV, p. 165. 


_ AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN, 463 


x two branches of the Government. The issue thus pre- 
the people of England was a grave one—being nothing less 
of absolute submission to the despotic control of those de- 
a the Government in the choice of which they had no 
br a resort to the extreme remedy, in which the existing system 
1 its origin, forcible resistance. I had already seen much to 
n the character of that people but nothing so impressive as 

2 bearing at this fearful crisis. On occasions of ordinary 
When dangers to their liberties were seen at a distance, 
igs, violent resolutions, clamor and rioting were the com- 
thannels thro’ which popular discontent showed itself to men 
wer; but now that the necessity for immediate and effective 
| Was imminent—indeed, at hand—none of these exhibitions of 
mnded public sentiment were to be seen or heard. The streets 

miet and, to an unusual extent, abandoned. Silence prevailed 
€-rooms and in all places of public resort. The press spoke 
sd terms, the House of Lords,lately the object of violent 
iciation, was not spoken of at all, and almost the only open dis- 
f the condition of the pg mind was the notice, placarded 
ferous respectable houses, “ no taxes paid here.” Nor could any 
mstrations have cae equally significant or so effectually 
anti-reformers of the nature of the crisis which had at 
eached. The Duke saw it as clearly as any one and met it 
honest man. By his express advice to the King Lord Grey and 
umet were recalled and the danger passed away- 
a public speaker the Duke of Wellington possessed few at- 
ms to casual or inattentive hearers. His language was plain, 
m-place, his gestures awkward and his delivery marred 
repetitions. Yet he had oratorical qualifications of a 
by means of which he seldom failed to make his speeches, 
occasions, remarkably effective. These were a clear head. 
=a diseriminating mind and a love of truth, of the sincerity 

L hed ingenuous auditor could remain unsatisfied. No man 

ever heard seemed to me more scrupulously attentive to the 
ne advies given to orators, never to rise except they had 
g to say and to resume their seats when they had said it. 
ah with interest and seldom without profit to his ap- 
mifused speeches. They contained clear and closely con- 
= gents of facts, frequently including some that were 
rial but had been overlooked by previous speakers, and 
wiginal views of the subject with additional arguments 

such as had been already urged; the whole being pre- 
ly and with an obviously equitable aim and left to make 


_ 


- 7 i i i a fereeph 
. Pinte ] 


408 Sw 


464 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


ination or the passions of his audience. He was consequently heard — 
by those who were in pursuit of the right and truth of the case with 
much attention, and his speeches, backed by his well understood 
integrity and truthfulness, generally told upon the decision with ~ 
much force. There were many points in which he and Gen. Jackson — 
resembled each other. In moral and physical courage, in indiffer- — 
ence to personal consequences and in promptness in action there 
was little if any difference in their characters. The Duke was better 
‘educated and had received the instruction of experience upon a 
larger scale, but the General in native intellect had, I think, been 
more richly endowed. 

The effects of Sir Robert Peel’s oratory were, as it appeared to 
me, much weakened by the formal and somewhat ostentatious man- — 
ner in which he threw himself into the debate—a certain something 
that seemed to say here am I! Yet I never saw anything, either 
in his familiar intercourse with the members of the House, or in his © 
manners or conversation out of it, to countenance the idea that he 
was capable of indulging in any such assumption or that he 
entertained a vain conceit of his own capacities or importance. It is 
far more likely that I misjudged as to the habit I speak of, altho’ 
I was struck by the appearance of it and often referred to it at the 
time.. Sir Robert impressed his contemporaries with a high opinion 
of his elocution and he figured in an age of great men. Lord Macau- 
lay, a competent judge, altho’ certainly sometimes extravagant if not 
careless in his conclusions ranks him among the successors of Pitt, 
the justness of whose reputation as an orator has long ceased to be an 
open question, and this classification has not been dissented from, nor 
as far as I know, received with distrust. It may be regarded there- ~ 
fore as having met with general approbation. Nevertheless, with a 
very good opinion of Sir Robert Peel’s capacities as a public speaker, 
I must say that he at no time appeared to me equal, as a skilful de- 
bater, to what Lord Derby was when I knew him as Lord Stanley 
or comparable, as an orator, to Daniel Webster; neither in my judg- 
ment, did his greatest strength lie in that direction. His career 
disclosed commendable traits of character and he succeeded in the 
accomplishment of important objects, but by means among which 
his speeches, useful tho’ they were, were not the most effective. The 
son of a cotton-spinner he attained, under the adverse influences of 
monarchical and aristocratical institutions a power in the Goverr 
ment and a social position very rarely surpassed, under similar cir-_ 
cumstances, and not often equalled. He bore a good fortune of so 
marked a character as a man of sense and in a manner to which 
I believe no exception has ever been made in any quarter, and to — 
which I am confident none could be made with truth. This, as the 


av OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 465 


is a very high merit, well calculated to advance a man 
imation. But it was not by far his strongest claim upon the 
‘of his countrymen. He was the favorite, I may say the pet 
b landed aristocracy of England: few commoners ever stood 
in its favor or were more caressed by its chiefs. These he 
ofiended by the efficient support he gave to Catholic emancipa- 
d, with perfect knowledge of the consequences he cut him- 


forever from their confidence and favor by exerting an active 
werful influence in behalf of free trade. There have been in 
e greater movements than these movements in which 
mired the deracination of commercial habits and ideas 


the severest penalties and Sir Robert readily encountered 
ger and endured the penalties,° contributing largely, perhaps 
3 to the victory. Those movements were designed only 
the happiness and welfare of the masses, and he deserves 
egatded as having staked his political fortunes upon their 
| because he placed a higher value upon the interests of 
and the thanks of posterity than upon the plaudits and 
the great and powerful among the living. 
ain ance has been more intimate and my official inter- 
More extensive and varied with Viscount Palmerston than 
ny other of the public men of England. He became Minister 
reign Affairs under the Melbourne Administration whilst I 
the office of Secretary of State, charged with corresponding 
under that of President Jackson. He occupied the same post 
Fesidence as the representative of my Country in Eng- 
id until the end of my official term as President of the United 
fing that time, embracing a period of about cleven years, there 
ise a single important question between our respective 
is with the superintendence of which he was not charged 
ach I did not take a direct part, or over the disposition of 
a not exert a material influence either as Secretary of 
iimister to England, as the confidential counsellor of Presi- 
lackson. always consulted on such occasions, or as President, 
ponsible for the manner in which the duties of the Gov- 
_Fespect to them were discharged. Among those ques- 
hat of the North Eastern Boundary between us and Great 
the worst and most menacing aspects which that subject 
ed, and that presented by the mutually disturbing and 


: “MS. IV, p 170. 


= ty 
ae 

ve 

A. o~ 


ve 
A. 
bd 


466 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
irritating occurrences growing out of the Canadian Rebellion and 
the unauthorized participation of our citizens in its prosecution, in- 
cluding the affair of the Caroline and the case of McLeod.* 

I have seen, with regret, that an impression has, to some extent 
at least, secured a lodgment in the public mind here that Lord 
Palmerston has imbibed prejudices against this Country which have 
made him less disposed than other British statesmen to do us jus- 
tice. I feel bound to say that with the opportunities I have had, 
perhaps as full as those of any other person, I have seen nothing 
to justify this notion but much to disprove its correctness. In the 
course of the exciting and truly important discussions in which we. 
have been involved I never had occasion to suspect him of profess- 
ing opinions he did not sincerely believe to be well founded, as a 
sanction to groundless pretences or as a cover to resistance of claim 
the justice of which he could not honestly controvert—an artifice 
unhappily too common in diplomacy—but to this day I retain 2 
gratifying and abiding recollection of the constant occasion I found 
to admire the candour and integrity of his conduct and of the facili 
ties for the performance of official duties which were afforded by 
his genial and conciliatory dispositions. During my recent visit t 0 
England, twenty five years later than the period of which i 2 
writing, I saw much of him and was pleased to find him at the heal of 
the Government. I discussed public affairs with him, including those 
of our own Countries, with the same freedom which characterized 
our former intercourse and perceived no change in his disposition 
or apparently in his capacities other than such as must follow the 
unavoidable but, in his case, gentle touch of time. 

Lord Palmerston can scarcely be regarded as an orator of the 
first class—in the highest but restricted sense of the term. Altho 
prepared by the study and stored with the extent of general knowl 
edge deemed indispensable to the constitution of an accomplished 
statesman, his parliamentary life has not been distinguished B 
elaborate speeches indicating extensive research or profound medi 
tation. Yet there are, certainly, or have been few of his contempo- 
raries whose careers as leaders of the House, from time to time, 
the side either of the Government or of the opposition, have 
more successful than his. For the accomplishment of a result 
grateful to public men he has called into action powers of the m 
more humble in pretension and less dazzling in appearance but, 
experience has often proved, far more effective in the end than 
most brilliant oratory when not sustained by them. These h 
consisted of unfailing judgment in pressing his measures upon #l 


1 Alexander McLeod and the burning of the steamer Caroline by the British in 1837, in 
American waters. ’ 


a 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 467 | 


_ House at the proper time, when its members were in the best mood 


‘to regard them favorably and the auspices in other respects favor- 


_ able to success; of the keen sagacity with which he has been accus- 


_ tomed to find the weakest point in the position of his adversary and 


the promptitude and perseverance with which he has applied all 
the means within his command to overthrow him at that point, 
without engaging in mere oratorical or comparatively extraneous 
debate, whereby time and opportunity might be afforded to his 
opponent to recover from mistakes or to take a new position; of 
so arranging not only the form of the specific questions thro’ which 
the sense of the House upon the whole subject is to be collected 
and its disposition controlled, but the order in which they are to 
be proposed, as to force to the surface and to turn to his advantage 
latent diversities of feeling and opinion on points either not at all 


_or only remotely bearing upon the principal subject, and of that 
habitual control by which he has saved himself from being led into 
attempts to attain objects which were indeed beyond his reach,— 


a fault into which indiscreet politicians, however sincere, are apt 
to fall in the ardor of success. Lord Palmerston’s career is a strik- 
ing illustration of the advantages that may be reasonably expected 


trom the observance of these and other rules, which might be re- 


ferred to, of parliamentary government, taught by the school of 


which he was an early disciple and has become so distinguished a 


master, and in connection with his moral courage, his alertness and 


his remarkable industry they disclose the secret of his great 
_ prosperity. 


A fine opportunity was presented for the display of his proficiency 
in that school on the occasion of the attacks made, in the summer of 
1855, upon the Administration of which he was the Chief, on ac- 
count of the course it had pursued in respect to the breaking up of 
: the Congress of Vienna and its alleged spirit and policy in relation 
: to the prosecution of the war with Russia. The original notice of 
2 motion which would bring the subject before Parliament was 
| given by Mr. Milner Gibson, 2 member of the Queen’s Privy Conn- 
cil and an earnest friend to peace, but his notice had been virtually 
withdrawn in consequence of the answer of the Premier to questions 
| which, it was insinuated, had been collusively put to him by promi- 
nent Peelites, friends of Mr. Gibson. The hostile movement was 
however started afresh and pressed to a vote by Mr. Disraeli, the 
Conservative leader in the House; and the position of the Ministry 
in the conflict by which it was attempted to be overthrown was thus 
described by the Attorney General: “It was attacked,” he said, “in 
Tront, flank, and rear by adversaries whose assaults, owing to their 
conflicting opinions, it was difficult to meet.” 


_ 468 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. == 


This was doubtless a true description of Lord Palmerston’s 
dition on the occasion and it is one to which Parliamentary lea 
are always exposed and from which no order of talent can be ma 
so effectual for defence as that I have ascribed to him. It was my 
good fortune to be able to attend those debates for two nights, on 
both of which they were continued into the ‘small hours’ of th 
morning. I was present at their close, having had occasion to 
mire the judgment, circumspection and talent displayed by Palm 
ston throughout, and I rejoiced in his success. He triumphed in 
a House a majority of the members of which were, at heart, de- 
sirous of his overthrow. The Conservative leaders, under the in- 
fluence of disappointed feelings, insinuated, as I have said, collu- 
sion between the Premier and prominent Peelites, but I, sitting 
near the gentlemen alluded to, needed no other proof of the un- 
founded nature of those imputations than was to be found at 
conclusion in their countenances and whole demeanor. If I° 
been called upon to indicate the two members who appeared to t 
the result most heavily to heart I should have pointed, without 
hesitation, to Sir James Graham and Mr. Gladstone. Disraeli 
perhaps more resentfu] but evidently not quite as unhappy. 
yet the final vote, which confirmed and strengthened the Ministry 
in their seats, had been unanimous—or, without a division; so skill 
fully had the propositions and debates ‘been governed by the ma 
spirit of the occasion.* 

Whilst engaged with this part of my task, a friend without being 
aware of my particular occupation at the moment, has placed in 
hand Macaulay’s sketch of the life of William Pitt in which I | 


°MS. IV, p. 175 

a] have elsewhere referred to like successful efforts on the part of Mr. Madison in 
first Congress following the adoption of the Constitution, when he availed himsée) 
the diversities in opinion and feeling between the federal and anti-federal members t 
secure the adoption of amendments, otherwise unattainable, which gave to that 
valuable instrument a vitality without which it must long since have perished. More 
over these and all other similar resorts of genius and talent since the days of Saint Pa 
have been but reproductions of the admirable skill with which that great Apostle s 
himself from the malice of the Pharisees and Sadducees, who had banded together fot 
destruction, by adroitly mingling the momentous and overshadowing subject of the Resu 
rection of the Dead with the questions by which his life was endangered, as thus ¢ 
scribed by St. Luke: 

“But when Paul perceived that the one part was Sadducees and the other Pha 
he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: Of | 
the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question. j 

“And when he had so said, there arose a dissension between the Pharisees and 
ducees: and the multitude divided. 

“ Wor the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit: but 
Pharisees confess both. 

“And there arose a great cry: and the scribes that were of the Pharisees part | 21 
and strove, saying, We find no evil in this man; but if a spirit or an angel hath sp en 
to him let us not fight against God. : 

“And when there arose a great dissension, the chief Captain, fearing lest Paul shou d 
have been pulled in pieces of them, commanded to soldiers to go down, and to take him 
by force from among them, and to bring him into the castle.” 1 


4 


§ 
4 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 469 


Views so opposite to those I have expressed as to make it, in some 
‘sense, my duty to notice them. He describes the subject of his 
“Memoir as “the greatest master of the whole art of parliamentary 
government that has ever existed—a greater than Montagu or Wal- 
pole, a greater than his father Chatham or his rival Fox, a greater 
3 than either of his illustrious successors Canning and Peel. » 

_ Having accorded, with a degree of justice which I am neither pre- 
pared nor disposed to question, this eminent distinction to Mr. Pitt, 
he proceeds to a description of the length of time during which the 
“art,” or power referred to has existed in England and of the im- 
“mense advantages she has derived from its exercise, to a definition of 
ga power and to his view of the qualifications which are sufficient 
to enable its possessor to wield it with success. Upon the latter point 

he thus expresses himself :— 


Parliamentary Government is Government by speaking. In such a Govern- 
“ment the power of speaking is the most highly prized of all the qualities which 
4 politician can possess; and that power may exist, in the highest degree, with- 
out judgment, without fortitude, without skill in reading the characters of 
men, or the sign of the times, without any knowledge of the principles of legis- 
Aation, or of political economy and without any skill in diplomacy or in the 
administration of war. Nay it may well happen that those very intellectual 
qualities which give a peculiar charm to the speeches of a public man may be 
incompatible with the qualities which would fit him to meet a pressing emer- 
_ geney with promptitude and firmness. 
- Lord Macaulay names several who have auquired the reputation of 
great orators who were, in his opinion, thus deficient, but he does 
not include Mr. Pitt in the number, nor is it fairly arfeeabie ‘from 
what he says of him in that connection that he so regarded him. The 
BE position he states was more probably designed as a general one 
_ expressing his dissent from the commonly received idea of the quali- 
_ fications indispensable to the constitution of a master, in the highest 
_ degree, of the art of Parliamentary Government. I cannot assent 
to the position assumed by him in this regard notwithstanding my 
dmiration of his abilities and accomplishments as a public writer, 
ithout ignoring the teachings of a long public life, a large portion 
of which has been spent in legislative bodies of a character quite well 
calculated to test the capacities requisite to their government. The 
comparison that he institutes between the relative powers which 
Sharles Townshend or Mr. Windham, on the one hand, were [pos- 
essed of] or which such men as Giiver Cromwell, oe he says, 
Iked nonsense, and William the Silent, who did not talk at all, 
ould have been capable of exercising in the Government of the 
louse of Commons, can scarcely be regarded as a happy or a safe 
lustration of the value of qualifications in a parliamentary leader, 
thich he deems unnecessary. A more reliable solution of the latter 
estion would I think be reached by comparing the probable effi- 


470 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


ifications referred to with that of the same gentlemen in the pos- 
session of them. If the difference would be without doubt very 
cided it would seem impossible to make a greater—much less “the 
greatest”—master of the whole art of parliamentary government out 
of one who does not possess such qualifications. 

A public speaker, on particular occasions and under adventitious 
circumstances, may be able to rivet the attention and enlist the feel- 
ings of his hearers for the moment, or carry erroneous conclusions 
to their minds, without the aid of such auxiliary qualifications as 
have been named, but to establish himself in the government of such 
a body as the English House of Commons, it is, at least, indispensa- 
ble that he should acquire and retain the deep seated and habitual 
confidence of a majority of its members, and how that can be ac- 
complished by a leader “without judgment, fortitude or skill in read- 
ing the characters of men or the signs of the times, and without 
any knowledge of the principles of legislation,” is beyond my com- 
prehension. : 

The history of our public men affords an instance sufficiently im- 
portant and applicable to supply conclusive reasons to prove the 
incapacity of a great orator to govern parliamentary or legislative 
bodies who is deficient in a portion only of the qualifications de- 
scribed. I allude to the case of Alexander Hamilton. The assump- 
tion may excite surprise in the minds of those who have known 
nothing personally of that eminent man, but it may be well doubted 
whether his native Country—England+—has ever produced one 
who was, at all points, a more finished orator. He was well edu: 
cated, well supplied with knowledge especially applicable to the 
duties of a statesman, graceful and winning in gesture and in his 
delivery, a man of comprehensive and elevated views, an eager an 
earnest patriot in the sense of opinions sincerely and honestly held, 
powerful, tho’ diffusive, in debate, and withal supremely eloquent. 
Yet this man thus lavishly furnished with faculties and oppor-— 
tunities as a public speaker never acquired a corresponding, much 
less a controlling influence in any public body of which he was a 
member. His failure in this regard tho’ doubtless, in part, °at- 
tributable to a defective judgment as well in the construction of his 
public measures as in the means employed in their support, w 
owing more to his having been “without skill in reading the ch 
acters of men or the signs of the times.” The consequences of th 
defects were seen and felt by his coadjutors as well as by his op 


1Van Buren was apparently misinformed or looked upon the West Indian colonial as a 
native Englishman: f 
° MS. IV, p. 180. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 471 


ponents in the old Congress, and one of them has already been re- 
ferred to in these pages. But they were more strikingly displayed 
in the Convention for the formation of the Federal Constitution, 
in which his influence as the sole representative of a State of the 
first importance and as the greatest orator in the body was totally 
destroyed by the errors and indiscretions of a single speech, and 
that his first and principal performance of that kind. 
Whilst such were the results of Hamilton’s parliamentary efforts, 
his friend Madison, who partook largely of his political heresies in 
one or two particulars, who was not equal to him as an orator and not 
‘more than equal to him in general intellectual power, left inefface- 
able traces of his great success and usefulness in both bodies. Other 
considerations doubtless aided in causing this difference in the 
results of their labors but it is not to be doubted that it was princi- 
pally occasioned by the possession and vigilant exercise on the part of 
_ the latter of the qualifications referred to and which the former 
lacked. A more reliable judgment would have impressed Hamilton 
wrth a proper sense of the importance of ascertaining his ability to 
obtain the assent of the Convention at least to a system of Govern- 
Beent like that he desired,—to wit: one which would favor the ulti- 
“mate introduction of monarchical institutions—before he ventured 
to avow his preference for such institutions as unreservedly as he 
_ did in the speech alluded to. A still more advanced step in wisdom’s 
way would have been the mature consideration of the probability of 
_ his being able to secure the concurrence of the States in the establish- 
ment of such a system before he attempted its passage in the Conven- 
_ tion and of the ruinous consequences to his political friends, to him- 
_ self and to his Country, that must follow his failure. A large por- 
_ tion of the members of the Convention, probably a majority, were 
: his friends, and could have had no motive to conceal their purposes 
from him. If he had possessed but moderate skill in reading the 
characters of men and judgment sufficient to appreciate the import- 
| ance of the information, he would have found but little difficulty in 
satisfying himself that, however much disposed some of his col- 
- leagues might be to wish success to his views, there was, in all prob- 
_ ability, not one ready to encounter the responsibility which he boldly 
_ faced and to risk their reputations and positions by openly sustain- 
"ing the preference he was about to avow, much less by any attempt to 
Carry it into effect. Washington, the President of the Convention 
‘and his friend, if pressed with the earnestness which the occasion 
‘would have justified, would not have hesitated to say to him that, 
_ however strong might be his own apprehensions as to the final suc- 
cess of Republican Government in this Country, he would feel it his 
_ duty to peril his life in support of the attempt to uphold it until its 
-imnpracticability should be demonstrated by the fullest experience. 


472 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. oS 


If Hamilton had been capable of understanding the temper and 
dispositions of the people whose cause he had gallantly espouse d, 
or of reading the signs of the times, he would have seen and 
felt the impossibility of obtaining the concurrence of even a ma- 
pority of the states, notwithstanding occasional symptoms, under 
the influence of adverse circumstances, of luke-warmness and back- 
wardness in their devotion to free institutions, in the establishment 
of a system which was liable to the suspicion merely of having been 
designed to sap the foundations upon which Republican Govern- 
ment could alone be sustained. But being, as he was, “ without skill 
in reading the characters of men or the signs of the times,” and 
absorbed in the egotism and attendant vanity which have been the 
lot of great orators-in all ages, he thought only of his own ideas, 
of the opinions which were the fruit of his own meditations, a nd : 
thus made blind to all that was passing around him, he thre 
himself headlong upon the Convention and recklessly proclaim 
sentiments at variance with what he ought then to have believed 
and what experience has since shown to be the rivetted feeling of 
the American people, rendering his subsequent success as a public 
man impossible and casting a cloud of suspicion over the policy 
and principles of the political party of which he had been from 
the beginning the idol, which could never be dissipated and under 
which it perished. 

Lord Brougham’s fame was at its highest point at the time of 
which I am speaking. He held the first office in the kingdom ac- 
cessible to a subject, with acknowledged talents and acquirements 
scarcely second to any contemporary and with the most eligible 
opportunities for their display from the woolsack, on the floor of 
the House of Lords and in the High Court of Chaneery. To add 
to the value of these possessions came the consciousness that they 
had not been conferred upon him through favor—were not the 
fruits of rewards of obsequiousness or subserviency to rank and 
power. It was, on the contrary, well understood that in raising 
him from the condition of a private subject to the high dignity he 
reached, his Sovereign had only bestowed upon him a tribute justly 
due as well for his instrumentality in commending to the favor of 
the Nation a great principle, long depressed, but which was vita 
important to its welfare, as for the ability and moral courage | 
had exhibited and the responsibilities he had encountered in sus- 
‘taining its unfortunate Queen against the bitter resentment an 
arbitrary pretension of her reckless husband and Sovereign. Thes es 
were considerations which when connected with his anquesaaall 
capacity to discharge its onerous and responsible duties in a manne! 
useful to the Country, while creditable to himself, were caleulaiel 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 473 


to confer and did confer unusual éclat on his elevation to the office 
of Lord High Chancellor of England. 
. es made his personal acquaintence at one of Prince Talleyrand’s 
elightful round-table dinners in which the company was restricted 
te nine. On that occasion it consisted besides our host and his niece, 
he Duchess de Dino, of Lord and Lady Holland, Lord and Lady 
Sefton—both ladies, like their husbands, veteran politicians,—the 
Lord Chancellor, Lord Auckland and Beats. I had seen the Chan- 
¢ellor in his robes but did not recognize him in the plain dress he 
“wore, nor was I presented to him before dinner. Placed between 
him and Lord Auckland, with whom I was well acquainted, I asked 
of the latter the name of my neighbour, and was, to my surprise, 
introduced to Chancellor Brougham. I met him frequently after- 
wards, was invariably treated by him with kindness and respect, 
ee ither saw nor heard of anything, save what I am about to speak 
, that should have impaired his claim to mine and yet, as I am 
now , when I feel myself better informed almost ashamed to say, I 
left England, in 1832, with strong prejudices against his personal 
character. These arose exclusively from an impression, erroneous 
s I ultimately discovered it to be, in regard to certain effects, pro- 
duced upon him by his sudden and great elevation from the rank of 
a iru subject to the highest affice in the gift of the Crown, and 
to the Peerage. 
_ Lhave seldom observed in the habits of any people a more striking 
and commendable feature, or one which has afforded me more satis- 
faction, than the equanimity with which the higher classes of the 
; glish nobility enter upon the successive advancements in rank and 
dignity to which at intervals sometimes long delayed, they succeed by 
inheritance, and the simplicity in respect to person nal appearance and 
demeanor with which they wear their new honors. This trait in 
heir character is so general as to constitute a rule, in the truth of 
Which no one who has an opportunity to test it will be disappointed, 
the higher the ranks of its aristocracy the more will the ob- 
r be obliged to acknowledge not merely the modesty and sim- 
city of manner, which distinguish the gentleman in all degrees 
f society, but the absence of all assumptions of superiority or merit 
n the score of birth. It is doubtless to these features in their dispo- 
ion and conduct, almost always visible in their intercourse with 
er classes, rather than to any different cause that the remarkable 
edom from envious or jealous feelings towards them, on the part 
£ those who occupy lower places in the established social scale, is to 
e attributed, and they present in this regard a happy model° for 
se who are not born and have, consequently not been trained to the 


° MS. IV, p. 185. 


474 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. © = pe 


Se. 5 
possession of like distinctions but have succeeded to them throug! 
their own merits and by the favor of their Sovereign. Right-mi ded 
men thus placed will seldom fail to appreciate the proprieties as we 
as the general duties of their position. They will think themselve 
made neither better nor worse by becoming the recipients of such dig- 
nities, but regarding the power and rank “which have been conferrec 
upon them as a trust only for the advancement of the public good, the 
possession of which entitles them to no more respect and confidence 
than are the legitimate fruit of the able and faithful performance of 
public duties, while serving their Country they will also refiect honor 
upon their class and present examples worthy of being imitated by its 
future members. 4 

There have been illustrious instances of this description among 
the public men of England and they have received the reverence 
and gratitude of their countrymen. But the enlightened views ¢ 
public policy which have led, from an early period, to the bestow- 
ment of these distinctions, under a monarchy, without regard to 
birth—though contrary to the genius of such a Government—hay 
not, in all cases, been rewarded with equal success. They have beet 
at times conferred on men whom their possession has only served 
to inflate with vanity and arrogance. 

As an American citizen, interested in the spread of free gover 
ment, I was, of course, solicitous for Lord Brougham’s success in his 
able support of the great principle involved in the question of Par. 
liamentary reform, his devotion to which lay at the foundation oi 
his advancement and which was still dependent for its full develop 
ment and security on his continued efforts. I accordingly leane 
to his side in all his contests with his opponents and naturally wishe¢ 
him well in all things. Nevertheless every thing I saw of him on 
the woolsack, on the floor of the House of Lords, or in the Hig! 
Court of Chancery led me to place him in the category of those 
spoiled children of fortune whose heads are turned by their f S IS 
perity and whose dispositions instead of being softened are m 
haughty and assuming by the amplitude of their powers. It would 
now be no less disagreeable than useless to recall the particular act 
and circumstances which served to ripen that impression into 
painful conviction. It is enough to say that the latter was as sii 
cere as it was unwelcome and kept its hold upon me, when I cam 
home. I acknowledged it without reserve to my friends when th 
opinions I had formed of the public men of England were asked 
altho’ never unnecessarily or by way of reproach. During my sé 
ond visit abroad many years later, I was thrown in a closer ii 
timacy with Lord Brougham and, with nearer views of the mal 
became fully satisfied that my former opinions of him had bee 


oe 


ss AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 475 


108 unjust. The addition of more than a score to the number of 


I am aware were enough to work a great change in a man’s 
ings but, in the natural course of such things, this change would 
e been the other way. The disease which, in 1831, I believed to 
upon him in its acute form, would, if such had been his condition, 
have become chronic in 1854. But there were no such indications. 
J never, on the contrary, saw a man who, after passing thro’ so dis- 
ti hed a public life, was more at ease with the world, less prone 
to carp at the management of public affairs by tits Ship besetting 
j mfirmity of retired (ena ee restive under the neglects wih 
which the worshippers of the rising sun regard his setting or more 
cheerfully acquiescent in the conclusions at which the great com- 
munity of which he is a member had obviously arrived that the day 
for his active and useful participation as chief in the weightier mat- 
ters of the Government has passed away forever; a judgment which 
communities have a right to form and express according to their own 
pleasure and from which rational men, with faculties really unim- 
paired, will not be disposed to appeal. 
_ As far as I had opportunities for forming an opinion, and these 
were not few or unfavorable, he seems envious of or dissatisfied 
with no man or set of men and, forgetful of former prejudices, 
devotes the remnant of power and influence that are left to him 
io the improvement of the various public institutions of his Country 
and a liberal share of| his leisure hours to social enjoyments, par- 
taking of them, with equal zest and satisfaction, with friends and 
foes of former days. Such would not have been the evening of a 
life the meridian of which had been deformed by passions of the 
character I had supposed—a sad error on my part the correction 
of which will always stand among the most cherished recollections 
of my last visit to Europe. 
_ Lord Derby, the present first Minister, was then a member of 
Lord Grey’s Administration, holding the office of Secretary for 
Ireland. I thought him the readiest and keenest debater in the 
House of Commons. A thorough comprehension of his subject and 
a happy condensation of its most material parts, a perspicuous 
entation of the questions growing out of it, with pointed but 
uncrowded illustrations and legitimate deductions going to strengthen 
e side he espoused, expressed with a remarkable clearness and 
elivered in a peculiarly graceful manner, were among the striking 
features of his speeches. They were always listened to with interest 
and on great occasions rarely failed to elicit the admiration of all 
who heard them. But they did not, in general, produce a corre- 
‘sponding effect upon the vote of the House. This discrepancy 


—— 


— poneianara siete? ———— 


pre 


POT TE GT 


rl es a Se ae 


; Fy ‘ “<_ 
476 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. = 


was not understood to arise as much from an aversion to his v 
of the subject under debate or from any defects in his arguments 
as from the apparently imperious spirit with which they were en- 
forced. Whatever may have been the true character of his feelings— 
of which I was not well enough acquainted with him to judge—h 2 
always seemed to me more intent upon harassing than upon conve 4) 
ing his adversary. Presenting himself in that attitude, as I cannot 
but think he did to others as well as myself, his assaults and replies, 
tho’ always couched in civil and parliamentary language, generally 
assumed a harsh and irritating character. His dislike to Mr. O’Con- 
nell, with whom he was often brought in contact by the nature of 
his official duties and, doubtless by a sincere belief that he was ren- 
dering the Country a service by keeping him in check, led him to 
indulge frequently in such displays and strengthened a habit to 
which he was naturally not disinclined. In respect to him, at least, 
I was quite sure that I was not mistaken in assuming that he acted 
from system and not upon the impulse of the hour, and succeeded 
in producing the desired effect. Certain it was that O’Connell 
seldom commenced an altercation with him which could have been 
avoided and when one was forced upon him he appeared desirous 
to get rid of him as soon as he could. The sparrings between them 
were among the most spicy proceedings of the House and therefore 
attracted more of my attention. ; 
By the side of the Secretary for Ireland, sustaining the same 
Administration, but in one respect, at least, in striking contrast 
with him, sat his associate in the Cabinet, the late Earl Spencer, 
then Lord Althorp and Chancellor of the Exchequer. It would be 
doing Lord Althorp injustice to say that he was a dull speaker 
for he was a man of excellent sense, highly respectable in his ac 
quirements and of exemplary probity, who avoided unnecessary 
altercations, confined his attentions very much to the duties of his 
office and was assiduous in their performance. What such a man 
says upon a subject the investigation of which is made his special 
duty is always listened to with respect and confidence. In other 
respects the Chancellor of the Exchequer seemed to his ho = 
especially to bystanders—an uninteresting speaker. Still more de 
cided was this impression when his speeches were contrasted y th h 
the severe invectives and brilliant sallies displayed in those of his 
more impetuous as well as more piquant associate Lord Stanley 
Lord Althorp bore the honors he possessed and the contemplai 
of those to which he was destined, in the natura] course of thi 
to succeed, with remarkable humility. He affected no superior? 
over those with whom he acted, was scrupulously careful not to 


° MS. IV, p. 190. 


Aa AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 477 


ai the feelings of any one and gave his reasons for his support 
on " objection to any measure before the House plainly, modestly 
id h sufficient clearness. So consistent had been, as I was in- 
rmed ‘the manifestation in his parliamentary career of these ad- 
e features that never, in its whole course, had the prejudice 
iLwill of his associates in the public service been excited against 
_ The difference between the degrees of influence which these 
tlemen were capable of exerting in support of the measures 
itted to their superintendence was not inconsiderable, and I 
the comparison struck me as favorable to the superior use- 
of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. 

ere was an occurrence in the House at the session to which I am 
f fel ing so well calculated to illustrate the character of the upright 
ad unassuming Lord Althorp as to justify me in noticing it. An 
ror to the extent of a million in a matter connected with the duties 
f his office was claimed to have been discovered by an opposition 
ember—I believe Mr. Croker—and brought before the House with 
uch formality. The mistake was not pointed out with sufficient — 
istinctness, to preclude discussion, and one of the Chancellor’s 
ends, Lord Palmerston, I think, rose and replied to what had been 


ation and attempted to arrest the discussion; as soon as his 
fiend resumed his seat, thanking the latter for the promptness with 
hi ick he had come to his aid he acknowledged the mistake imputed 
9 him, with his usual ingenuousness and explained to the House how 
had oceurred. Hearty and prolonged cheering forthwith fol- 
wed from both sides of the House creditable to the opposition for 
is magnanimity and to Lord Althorp as an indication of his per- 
nal standing among his countrymen of every political denomina- 
Lord John Russell was, I believe, the youngest of this trio of 
nior members of Lord Grey’s Cabinet who took active part in the 
dings of the Commons at this time, and did much to lay the 
tions of their subsequent eminence in the Councils of the 
tion. A promising scion of the House of Bedford, the respect and 
od will of the people were tendered to him in advance as a testi- 
mnial of the veneration they cherished for the virtues of its illus- 
ious founder. Lord John was Paymaster of the Forces and Leader 
the House of Commons. To him was committed the responsible 
ghly honorable trust of preparing and introducing into that 
the Reform Bill of 1831, and of superintending its passage. 
duties he performed with much parliamentary tact. sound 
igment and great success. Altho’ he did not perhaps in a single 
stance make what might be called a brilliant speech, he seldom, if 


478 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


ever, failed to say what was necessary or to say it at the right time. 
The abuses of the existing system and the probable advantages of the 
improvements proposed by his Bill were set forth by him plainly, 
concisely and forcibly. Everything he said served to satisfy his 
hearers that, although zealous in his support of the great principle 
upon which it proceeded, he was not disposed to push the enforce- 
ment of that principle to an extent that would betray indifference 
to the security and stability of the important interest that would 
unavoidably be affected by its passage, for good or for evil, or a want 
of respect that was due to opposing opinions. On the contrary he 
avowed and acted upon the conviction that the reform of a system 
of so long continuance, to which so large a share of the intelligence 
and wealth of the Country was opposed, to be safe and useful should, 
at least, be gradual and maturely considered at every step. He was 
accordingly desirous, throughout, to carry the Reform principle, in 
the first instance, cole far enough to shew and to afford a reasonable 
illustration of the advantages of the proposed improvement and 
enable the Country to regulate its future action upon the subject by 
the light of experience. By such a course he thought the complaints 
of those who felt aggrieved by the abuses of the existing system 
would be fairly respected without doing unnecessary violence to the 
opinions and feelings and supposed interests of their opponents. 
Thus wise and statesmanlike in his views, all England, I verily be- 
lieve, tho’ greatly divided upon the main subject and also in regard 
to the most expedient way of dealing with it, was well satisfied with 
the manner in which he discharged his responsible and difficult 
duties. 

He has since shared liberally in the confidence and favor of his 
Country and for a long time occupied the distinguished post of 
Premier Minister. His reputation for morality, integrity, personal 
and official, and for political constancy is deservedly held in high es- 
teem by all his countrymen without distinction of party. He is 2 
sensible, well informed painstaking gentleman and in every sense 
trustworthy. and I cannot but think: that it has been owing more 
to the general consciousness of the existence of these valuable fea- 
tures in his character, in connection with the particular transaction 
of which I have spoken, than to supposed intellectual superiority 
over contemporary statesmen that his public career has been so 
much more successful than that of many of them. 

I became well acquainted with the venerable member from Mid- 
dlesex, Mr. Joseph Hume, and with his amiable family and repeat- 
edly partook of their hospitality. Altho’ not greatly distinguished as 
a public speaker he always possessed himself fully of the merits of 
the questions upon which he addressed the House, explained his 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 479 


ub 


views clearly, and advocated them with earnestness and obvious 
sincerity. A large part of his usefulness consisted in his vigilant 
watch of power and of the abuses engendered by its possession, his 
devotion to liberty and his readiness to make sacrifices for its sup- 
i in whatever shape they might be presented. For very many 
years a constant object of abuse from those whose selfish aims and 
pl projects he resisted he lived down the calumnies and sneers that were 
eaped upon him, enjoyed during the latter years of his life the 
esteem and respect of all parties and died, during my last visit to 
j gland, mourned as a brother by honest men and true lovers of 
heir Country. 
irr Denniston,’ now Speaker of the House of Commons, and Mr. 
L abouchere, still a prominent member of that body, were, at that 
sarly period of their political career, already prominently dis- 
tinguished as among the most useful of its members, a, promise they 
ave very fully redeemed. Neither Mr. Bright nor Mr. Cobden, who 
had acquired so much celebrity in Parliament at the period of my 
second visit, were members in 1831. But I made the acquaintance 
_ of both during my last visit and was much pleased with the liber- 
ality of their sentiments in regard to the United States. It was not 
my good fortune to hear Mr. Cobden speak but Mr. Bright I heard 
ral times—on one occasion when the question was one of deep 
interest and his effort, in my estimation, fully sustained the wide 
spread reputation he has acquired as an peta and statesman. In 
e course of his remarks he treated our Country and her institu- 
ons with that justice and respect which have often been heard in 
public speeches and which have rendered his name a highly 
erished one in America. Mr. Cobden has recently paid us a visit 
hich I understand he has employed in. careful and unprejudiced 
nquiries into our condition and into the workings of our political 
stems, State and National. I had not the pleasure of meeting 
m but I am happy to learn from an intelligent and purely patri- 
source that in his respect for our Government and people as 
as in his desire for the success of both he in no degree falls 
behind his friend and political coadjutor, Mr. Bright. 


1 John Evelyn Denison. 


CHAPTER XXXIiII. = 

I have said that my residence in England was too short for the 
formation of the most reliable estimates of her public men and this 
may even more truly be predicated of my opinions in regard to the 
- character of her people and to the effects of her political institu- 
tions upon their happiness and welfare. Nevertheless my observa- 
tions were made under circumstances not otherwise unpropitious od 
the effect of them was greatly to increase my favorable impressions 
in both respects. Our own people have received from their ancestors 
a protest against her frame of government—a protest sealed with 
the° blood of those who made it and to which it is to be hoped 
their descendants to the remotest generation will faithfully adhere 
because it was founded on a just respect for the rights and the 
dignity of man. But it should not be forgotten that the decision m 
thus solemnly pronounced was made for and, in respect to its bin d- 
ing influence, became obligatory only upon thouselves and that the 
right of a people to “lay the foundations of their Government 
such principles and to organize its powers in such form as to t 
shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness” was as 
freely conceded to other nations as claimed for their own. No on 
doubts, no one can doubt that the form of Government recogn 
by the English Constitution is as much the choice of her people as 
that under which we have the happiness to live is the choice of ours. 
The system of Government under which the respective nations pr 
fer to live being therefore a matter for the exclusive decision of ¢ 
and in respect to the disposition of which no foreign interference is 
allowable, it is against reason and propriety that differences of opin- 
ion concerning the wisdom of such disposition should be made 3 
source of inter-national discord or heartburnings of any descrip 
tion. Both Great Britain and the United States have inducem 
of the strongest nature to a faithful observance of the duties wl 
flow from these sound and acknowledged general rules. A fair ¢ 
parison of our respective systems, with reference to the securities 
they provide for the most essential of the rights of man, will show 
that we may, in that regard, be said with much truth to be ind 
brethren in principle. To name a few of the most prominent w 


° MS. IV, p. 195. 
480 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 481 


re common to both; liberty of speech and of the press—to canvass 
freely the acts of men in power and to express such opinions of 
them as we may think useful and as truth will justify—liberty of 
‘conscience in matters of religious faith—securities and safeguards 
for the enjoyment of personal liberty, such as the writ of habeas 
‘corpus, trial by a jury of the vicinage &c—the right and protection 
‘of property: what candid American will claim that there are any 
very essential] differences in these respects between our condition and 
that of the people of England. The fact that the sovereignty, the 
‘supreme power in every ean of our Government rests with the 
‘great body of the people, whilst in that Country only that which 
‘is exercised by the House of Commons is placed in a more limited 
portion of theirs, constitutes indeed a valuable and honorable dis- 
tinction in favor of our unequalled Constitution. Yet, it deserves 
‘to be taken into consideration that the advantages we derive from 
this superiority are not so much obtained by the actual exercise of 
their sovereign power by the people as by the influence exerted upon 
their representatives by the important fact of their possession of it 
and by its exercise on stated occasions, and so regarded, the differ- 
ence in our respective conditions will, upon reflection, be found not 
so great as may be at first supposed. In point of fact the power of 
public opinion in England and, more especially, that expression of 
it which is pronounced by their people through their House of 
Commons is as potential and, in certain respects, more so, in con- 
trolling the action of the remaining branches of the Government as 
is the right of the people here to displace them all] at stated inter- 
vals. I have watched the character and course of that power with 
much interest, regarding its condition as a safe test of the relative 
progress of the conflicting principles of Government embraced in 
the English system—monarchical and republican. My visits to and 
temporary residence in that Country on two occasions, with an 
interval of a quarter of a century between them and on both under 
circumstances favorable to distinct and useful observation, have 
afforded me facilities of which I have not failed to avail myself for 
arriving at correct conclusions on this interesting point, and they 
have brought me to that here stated; a conclusion which will, I am 
well aware, be at first somewhat startling to my republican country- 
men, but which is nevertheless a true one. I could, if I had room 
for them, which I have not, refer to many circumstances which fell 
under my observation, on my second visit, indicative of the great 
change that had taken place in the habits and feelings of the people 
in favor of principles in the administration of their Government 
altogether liberal in character and which, tho’ carried out under a 


127483 °—vor 2—20——--31 


482 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. — a 


‘ ’ — 
plausibility and force than I had supposed his positions would 
effects. An incident or two, in which I was more immediately con 
cerned, must suffice to illustrate this position. d 

When I first left the United States my predecessor, Mr. MeLan 
put in my hand a letter of introduction, somewhat special in its 
terms, to Sir Robert Inglis, one of the members for Oxford, a gen- 
tleman of whom, I am sure, every Englishman acquainted with hir 
will concur with me in saying that he was a man of as much pu 
and private worth as any man in the kingdom. In politics he wa 
then called in the language of the day and without exaggeration ai 
inveterate Tory. He received me kindly, spoke warmly of the goo 
qualities of my predecessor and expressed an earnest wish to continu 
with me the friendly and social relations which had grown up be 
tween them. Accordingly he, for a season, treated me with marked 
attention, but, without the occurrence of a single disturbing inci 
dent of a personal character, gradually but as markedly cooled until 
our intercourse assumed a distant altho’ always respectful character 
_ and thus continued until I left the Country. Appreciating correctly 
the good and pure qualities of Sir Robert’s character, the existence 
of which could be read in his face and traced in his every step, I wa 
neither at a loss to understand nor offended by his course, attributi ng 
it altogether, and, as I had subsequent reason to know, correctly, t 
the radical difference he found between Mr. McLane’s political feel- 
ings and my own. - q 

On my recent visit to London Sir Robert called on me immediatel 
after my arrival, declared his satisfaction at meeting me again 
tendered various civilities in the most cordial terms. I met him 
often as well in England as on the Continent, passed many agreea 
hours in his company at Turin and was treated by both Lady Ingli 
and himself with uninterrupted kindness till the close of his lif 
which unhappily occurred shortly before my final departure fron 
Europe. During our intercourse on these occasions, except in regar 
to the distinctive features in the outlines of the systems of our re 
spective Governments, we found but little to differ about. Still oI 
resenting the same constituents whose confidence he had so long en 
joyed without anything like a formal change in his political positiot 
I yet found his views as liberal and his feelings as unprejudiced an 
generous in respect to public questions as I could desire. ‘4 

During the discussion of the Reform Bill on the occasion of m 
first visit to England I listened with much interest to an elaborat 
and, as I considered it, the ablest speech I heard, in either Ho se 
against that measure, from the Earl of Harrowby. It took thro gh 
out the wltra conservative grounds and maintained them with mor 
plausibility and force than I had supposed his positions woul 


q 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 483 


idmit of. When last in London I breakfasted with Sir Robert 
glis and amongst the company present was Lord Harrowby, son 
f the Earl, then deceased, to whose speech I have referred. I 
ound the present Lord Harrowby a gentleman of good intelligence 
md a decided liberal. Mr. Monckton Milnes, a distinguished mem- 
er of the House of Commons, whose political opinions were of the 
same stamp, was also present. The conversation becoming general 
[ alluded, in the course of it, to the obvious increase of the power 
of public opinion in their country, and in noticing my remark he 
said, in substance, that the Government of England, notwithstanding 
Ronarchical form, which he hoped would never cease to dis- 
inguish it, was rapidly becoming in its practical operation, as 
eel and as much under the influence of public opinion as one 
could be that was republican in all its features; that he looked 
ipon such a destiny with complacency and only regretted that the 
overnment were uot more actively employed in preparing the 
Country for the change which its Constitution was undergoing by 
l more general diffusion of knowledge and education among the 
eople. 

_ Among the various systems which have been devised and are now 
1 force for the Government of mankind it is in those only of 
Ingland and the United States that adequate provisions are to be 
found for the security of personal liberty and the just rights of 
an; they are eminently significant of the community of character 
origin of the citizens and subjects in whose behalf they have 
een established, and they constitute their birthright inalienable and 
adefeasible save by their own acts. As in no other Nation are those 
ights so well protected, so in no other is their safety watched with 
thing like the same spirit. The Constitutions of some of the new 
epublics on this Continent profess to provide for the preservation 
nd enjoyment of them but these are, in the main, merely paper 
astitutions productive of few practical results. Long continued 
ses have taken too deep root to be speedily extirpated and the 
ple over whom these new Governments were established have 
n too much enfeebled by past debasements to be able to assert 
ir individual rights with the vigor indispensable to their. perma- 
t establishment. Considerable advances have been made by Sar- 
ja towards the promotion of liberal principles in the administra- 
of government in that monarchy, but this is a speck upon the 
itical horizon of Europe. In regard to most of its States and 
ecially to the large and controlling ones of the Continent the 
meiple of arbitrary government is at this time, to all appearance, 
§ firmly established and possesses as much power as at any previous 


° MB. IV, p. 200. 


484 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 4 
a 

period within the present century. It has for the last few Ses 
gained strength instead of losing it and that in a quarter whi 
from the geographical position of the nation which has been sub: 
jected to it, makes this advance more alarming. The free institution \ 
of Great Britain and the United States serve as a standing reproach 
to most of the Governments of Europe and as sources of mortifie: 
tion and discontent to such among the people subject to the laiteny 
are capable of understanding their position—effects which those Goy 
ernments cannot but regard as a constant menace to their ill-gotter 
power. That they do not attempt to suppress by violence at 
present moment, the spirit fostered by free institutions is alone at 
tributable to the material strength with which that spirit is armec 
and to the hazards of the collision in other respects. 
England still maintains the relations she has heretofore he: 
ished with the monarchical and despotic governments of Europ 
but, as they well know, the Throne has long ceased to be the con 
trolling element of power in that Country, and that conviction i 
constantly and naturally exerting a corresponding effect upon th 
character of their relations. A line of separation, as yet not 
disclosed, has thus been drawn between England and America, o1 
one hand, and the antagonistic systems of the old world, on the other 
which promises to endure as long as anything that depends upe 
the will or the action of man, and thus interests of the greatest mag 
nitude have become the subject of common and equal concern to th 
two former Nations. Every assault upon those interests, whethe 
immediately directed against them in Great Britain or in the Unite 
States, must be regarded as an attack upon both and will, it is to b 
hoped, be met with equal spirit by both. The motives for such 
struggle and the reasons for its outbreak are continually gaining 
strength and will become every day more and more imperative, Th 
precise time of its occurrence God only mows. A very intelliga Dl 
approach in that direction was made at the period of the Holy A 
ance. What might have been then attempted we may surmise | bu 
perhaps shall never know if Mr. Canning had not threatened t 
reckless body with calling into existence a legion of free States « 
this Continent, alluding to the recognition of the independence ¢ 
the South American States, to assist in resisting the encroachmen 
of the spirit of despotism and had not the arbitrary powers take 
alarm at the feeling exhibited upon the subject in America and a 
the opportune re-appearance of Napoleon on the stage of actio: 
threatening their actual possessions. We do, however, know by ei 
perience that Nations under_control of the will of individuals ea 
never stand still but are destined to continual change by a nature 
and irresistible law. To recognize this truth we have only to loo 


= 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. A85 


: the Puemations of the last few years in Europe. It was but yes- 
day when France and England marched side by side against 
sia with common indignation at the neutrality of Prussia and at 
suspicious halting of Austria. To day the hostile relations be- 
mn France and Sardinia favored by Russia on one side and Aus- 
on the other threaten the peace of the world, whilst England 
nd Prussia, whose international relations have undergone a great 
ge, stand as neutrals certain if the war endures and if their neu- 
ity is preserved, to incur, in their turn, the reproaches and resent- 
t of the belligerents. What complications will tomorrow pro- 


one thing alone we may be assured. The contest between 
lespotic government and free institutions will continue to be 
waged to the end of the world. Until the people of England and 
0! the United States, or those of one or the other Country cease 
) respect the rights acquired by their ancestors at the greatest 
acrifices and prove false to the principles they have long pro- 
essed and maintained they will be found on the same side in that 
ggle, liable to be affected by the same causes and fortunate in 
ang able to apply their best efforts for their common safety. It 
yould seem impossible that the intelligent inhabitants of two 
Yations thus situated should be blind to their true interests in this 
egard or to the vital importance of providing in season for their 
nutual security by the cultivation and preservation of cordial re- 
ati Hons with each other. With Nations who consider that their 
spective positions make it for their interest to bind themselves 
0 SG sntual support in specified cases, a treaty of alliance, offensive 
id defensive, is the usual mode by which that object is accom- 
“plished. But experience has greatly weakened the confident re- 

lance of mankind upon such safeguards. When the crisis arrives 
has been found that Nations are disposed to be governed by their 
pparent interests at the moment, and if those have undergone 
material change, unfavorable to the performance of their engage- 
nents, they will disregard or evade them, whatever may have been 
he solemnity with which such alliances have been entered into. 
ae United States thus acted themselves in respect to the treaty 
alliance with France, during the administration and conform- 

to the suggestion of Washington, a Chief Magistrate as up- 
ht as any to whom the guidance of national affairs was ever 
itrusted, and in relation to engagements that were assumed under 
reumstances and from motives eminently calculated to render them 
cred and inviolable; a most instructive example. From the largest 
smallest, whether under national or municipal organizations, 
munities are on critical occasions too prone to disregard obli- 


eT” 


486 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


gations the non-performance of which would, in situations 
wise corresponding, be deemed too dishonorable to be thought o 
the concerns of individuals. Engagements of the character de- 
scribed are moreover against the established policy of our Govern- 
ment—a policy which it is to be hoped will never be abandoned. 
The parting recommendation of Washington never to quit our oy 
to stand upon foreign ground through entangling alliance is sound 
in itself, sacred on account of its source and has, let us trust, sunk 
too fean in the hearts and minds of our people to be forgotten or 
disregarded. A more auspicious and more reliable course will be 
to cultivate, with our best ability, friendly and liberal relatio 
between our respective Countries whose political condition is se 
different from that of the rest of the world and all whose inte 
favor such a course. There have been, it is true, times when the 
maintenance of such relations might well have been looked upc 
as hopeless. Our forcible separation from the Mother Countr 
with the incidents of a seven years war excited resentments on 
sides too fierce to be reasoned with and which only time and 
tunate chances could eradicate. The intercourse between the 
Countries for ten years after the recognition ° of our independen 
perhaps naturally, but certainly unfortunately, was of a charact 
ill adapted to appease those asperities. It was only less unfavora 
than would have marked a state of actual war. Blood was not s 
nor were any positive attempts made by Great Britain to ree! 
over us the sovereignty of which we had divested her, but to 
at least, her disposition appeared as hostile and her aggressions 
were as oppressive as they had ever been. In some instances we 
were doubtless mistaken as to facts and in our interpretation 
them; but making every allowance for possible errors of this 
we were yet warranted in regarding as we did regard the con 
of the British Government towards us during the whole of : 
period as alike arrogant and unjust. “a 
In respect to the aggressive character of her course there wer 
during that period of our national humiliation and suffering bi 
slight differences of opinion among us. None of our public 
for a season dared to excuse her. "Washington, Hamilton and 
their particular friends—Pickering perhaps alone excepted—opi 
denounced her conduct and if they differed at all with others u 
the subject such differences related only to the best methods of 
sistance. But this happy unanimity among our leading Statesme 
and among those who were influenced by their opinions was 
fortunately broken up by the war between England and France 
by the transactions to which it-gave rise. The latter power, be: 


° MS. IV, p. 205. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 487 


that period our best friend, alleging that we submitted volun- 
tarily to practices and pretensions on the part of her enemy which 
Were injurious to her, set up like pretensions in her own behalf, 
and perpetrated outrages against us but little, if anything, less 
‘injurious than those of Great Britain. 

So far from uniting as a band of brothers in resistance to these 
aggressions and to the pretenses by which they were attempted to 
be justified—both alike iniquitous—as it became an independent 
Nation to do, our public men allowed themselves to be involved in 
discussions in respect to the degrees and purposes of the hostility 
of the belligerents respectively, and our public functionaries, too, 
instead of presenting a united front against both and meeting every 
hostile movement, whether proceeding from France or England, 
with equal alacrity, wasted their time and exhausted their powers 
in a similar dispute as to which was the worst enemy of the two, 
and in reciprocal and bitter denunciations of each other for im- 
puted subserviency to one or the other of the oppressors of their 
Country. The feelings by which they were influenced were soon 
communicated to the masses and the Country divided, according 
to our own accounts, into French Jacobins and English Tories. 
Whilst the public men and the people of the United: States were 
employing themselves in these disgraceful wrangles enormous depre- 
dations were committed upon our commerce and obstructions thrown 
in the way of our infant marine, by both England and France, thro’ 
which the Country was impoverished and that important interest, 
which in after time did so much to restore our character and to ad- 
vance our fame, was brought to the brink of destruction. These 
: ggressions on our rights and this mode of treating them con- 
tinued, with but slight interruptions, until the war bf 1812 with 
Great Britain. The extent to which the state of things I have 
sketched served to impede our advance to that rank in the family of 
Nations to which we were well entitled, and to which we have at 
last attained, may be readily conceived. The injurious consequences 
to our means of defence, great as they were, in point of importance 
fell far short of those inflicted upon our character as an inde- 
pendent people. The glories of the Revolution were dimmed by the 
ignominious recriminations of the period that followed, in which 
the brave men who had achieved them were held up to the world, 
in pictures drawn of each other, as minions and tools of foreign 
powers fit only to be governed by foreign masters. If anything 
Were wanting to fix the odium of these mutual criminations and 
ecriminations it is furnished by the fact, now more than ever ap- 
parent, that they were in the main and substantially without founda- 
tion. Those, who, with Patrick Henry, in the early part of his 
political career, regarded Great Britain as standing first in her 


488 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


hostility to us, were doubtless more or less disposed to pa llia 
the conduct of France and to look to the former power as the pri 
cipal source of our difficulties, and so vice versa; but these ebull i 
tions of passion, the effects of momentary excitement, were not 
such exhibitions of public or private opinion as were fit to be 
made the foundation of so grave imputations and the subsequen 
publications of the private papers of the leading men of that perio 
have shown how little else there was to justify those aspersions and 
how much to disprovethem. . . 

The strongest proof of an undue—I might say an unpatrioti 
leaning towards either of the belligerents, which those publication 
have brought to light, is the suggestion of a treaty with ~- 
offensive and defensive, made by Pickering to Hamilton in Mare 
1798, as a step he was obviously prepared to take if Hamilton hi: 
aeanipel of it, and the reply of the latter in which he says: 

I am against going immediately into alliance with Great Britain. It is m 
opinion that her interests will insure us her cooperation to the extent of he 
power, and that a treaty will not secure her further. On the other han d 
treaty might entangle us. Public opinion is not prepared for it. It woul 
not fail to be represented as to the point to which our previous conduct wa 
directed; * * * The desideratum is that Great Britain could be en 
to lodge with her Vinister here powers commensurate with such arrange t 
as exigencies may require and the progress of opinion permit. I see no god 
objection on her part to this plan. It would be good policy in her to sen 
to this Country a dozen frigates, to pursue the directions of this gover 
ment.* 

Yet with this striking illustration of his great partiality tow 
England before us I do not in the least doubt that Hamilton woul le 
as I have elsewhere said, have repelled and resisted unfounded pre 
tensions of that Goantest prejudicial to his own, with the sa 
firmness and zeal that he had before displayed. The motive b 
which he and most of his political associates were influenced wa 
rather to impair the power of France than to increase that of 
Britain, by which policy they thought our safety would be | 
promoted. This was doubtless a great mistake but it was quit 
different from one that would have led them to take the part ¢ 
England in a contest with their own Country. It was in all prok 
ability thro’ the influence of the views I have indicated tha 
was brought to the point of resorting to so unwise a measure as 4 
alliance with England whenever public opinion might have becon 
prepared to tolerate it. . 

But the true condition of the public mind upon the point of w 
I speak was distinctly shown by the clamor raised against such 
project when its existence was only suspected, and Hamilton’s sen 


2 Norp.—Works of Hamilton. Vol. VI, p. 278. 


_—s AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN, 489 


xf that condition by his pains to guard himself against the injurious 
eflects of its being known or thought that he had been a party to it. 
_ Looking at these ever to be regretted transactions retrospectively 
ry - light of subsequent developments and of reflections unclouded 
y the bitter prejudices of the day, we cannot help altho’ there 
were without question peculiar faults to be condemned on both 
es, considering them in a body as among the worst excesses to 
which we have ever been exposed of the spirit of party, from 
whose occasional intemperate working no free Country can expect 
to be exempted. 
‘It was not until after the peace with England in 1815 that the 
anagement of public affairs in this Country was relieved from the 
erse effects of these disreputable altercations. During the war 
n just terminated imputations of subserviency to a foreign power, 
of a desire to war with England in conformity to the will and 
promote the interests of France, with efforts to paralyze the 
gies of their own Government, were again resorted to. They 
ad increased° in violence, like other vicious practices, through 
impunity, and made their last appearance amid the congenial 
ceedings of the Hartford Convention. The people of the United 
es, as soon as their foreign foe was disposed of, made it their 
iness to sit in judgment upon the character of those proceedings 
nd upon the conduct of the political party by which they had been 
ntenanced. They pronounced the former treasonable and placed 
latter under the ban of public opinion as unworthy of confi- 
cee. The sentence was a righteous one and executed without re- 
ve; nay more, if not its justice, the necessity, at least, of submit- 
ng to this fiat of public opinion was acquiesced in by the federal- 
ts themselves. A great party, whose origin was coequal with the 
stablishment of the Government, was in consequence of it, and by its 
wn consent, forever withdrawn from the political field. Opponents 
the democratic party of the Country have been since that period, 
yoked under the names of federal republicans, whigs, republicans, 
ericans e¢ cetera but a gathering of self acknowledged federalists, 
e and simple, has not been ventured upon for more than thirty 
s. This solemn judgment of the Country has been as salutary 
its effects as it was just. We have been engaged in another war 
it we have not been exposed to similar practices on the part of 
opposition to the Administration. We have had difficulties with 
nce, with England and with other Nations, which have been 
ussed with the publicity characteristic of our institutions. We 
e differed among ourselves in respect to the best way of treat- 
them, and they have been disposed of according to the will 


° MS. IV, p. 210. 


490 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 


of the majority, but the imputation of foreign influence has nevel 
since been heard in our Houses of Legislation, in the press or amc 

the people. Such humiliating and degrading elements have bee 
all appearances forever excluded from our partisan contentions. A né 
this was not, by far, the only advantage our Country derived from 
the war of 1812. There was one in particular of great importance 
which has a direct bearing upon the general subject before us. What 
I have before said is sufficient to show that whatever else we gained 
by the peace of 1783 with Great Britain we did not succeed in 
securing her good will. It is impossible to review the chara 
of our relations between that event and the war of 1812 withou 
becoming sensible of the great extent to which the prejudices en- 
gendered by the Revolution had retained their bitterness and pre 
vented the just influence of our conduct in that struggle in extort: 
“ing her respect towards us as a nation. She taunted us with om 
weakness, railed at our fir-built frigates, lightly estimated out 
prowess and our resources and despised our reiterated declaration 
of a necessity and a determination to resort to arms for a redress 01 
wrongs. Those who are familiar with the events of that period 
know that this is not an exaggerated description of the then ac- 
tual state of things. It became one too humiliating to be lo 
borne by a people who cherished a proper self respect and dro 
us to a declaration of war before we had completed our prepara 
tions. Great Britain embarked in it under an exulting sense o 
the disparity, favorable to her, between the contest then befor 
her and that by which our independence had been rescued frot 
her grasp, when she was under the necessity of transporting larg 
armies to a distant shore and to support them there for a perio 
as indefinite as that required not only to subdue but also to 
continued dominion over a brave people distributed over thir 
States and animated by an almost universal determination to | 
free. Chastisement, not conquest was now the object, and that coul 
be abundantly accomplished by sweeping our commerce from #1 
ocean, by the annihilation of our comparatively feeble navy an 
by setting the torch to a few of our principal towns. Of her ability 
to inflict these injuries with comparatively little loss to hersel 
she did not entertain the slightest doubt; perhaps no Government 
ever entered upon a similar undertaking with more unbounded ai 
surance. Of the military operations of that war it is sufficient fe 
the purpose for which the subject is introduced to say that t 
terminated in the disappointment of her confident expectations. 
results of the battles that were fought, on sea and land, so far fi Ol 
furnishing matter of satisfaction and exultation to the Govert 
ment and people of England filled them with amazement not unac- 


J 


- AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 491 


companied by at least some degree of apprehension in regard to the 
future. She had driven us to the display of skill and capacities 
for naval warfare of which we were ourselves scarcely conscious 
and which plainly foreboded danger to that dominion of the seas 
on which she had so long and with so much reason prided herself. 
‘She was too sagacious to remain insensible to the possible con- 
sequences of forcing a people like that with which she found her- 
self thus involved—a people by which so much had been done in 
so short a period, and whose persevering spirit she became inclined 
to measure by her own—to a further and accelerated development 
of its resources and its powers. 

_ Peace was concluded upon terms neither humiliating nor dis- 
‘creditable to either nation, a peace which promised far more ad- 
-yantages to both than a further prosecution of the war. The Mother 
Country at length recognized her kindred, and feelings long dor- 
mant were warmed into action by a lively admiration of the gal- 
lantry which had been displayed by her stubborn offspring. A new 
era in the character of our international relations was inaugurated. 
Respect, high and well deserved, was substituted for feelings which 
had savoured too much of contempt to breed, in return, any other 
than those of hatred. On our side Spe ovin were ameliorated by 
the consciousness of having forced our late and unnatural enemy at 
least to think better of us and by the confident anticipation that 
she would, in future, treat us with the consideration to which we 
felt ourselves entitled. We could therefore better afford and were 
in better mood to judge her future course with less unfavourable pre- 
dispositions, and for nearly half a century which has elapsed since 
that day the temper of the English mind and the conduct of Eng- 
Jand in respect to the people of the United States have been weighed 
by us in different scales. The progress of conciliation has not been, 
_ perhaps, as rapid as could have been desired, but John Bull, altho’ 
verbially slow, is at the same time sure, and we have doubtless 
grown more punctilious as we have grown older and stronger, but 
our intercourse, since the war, has been full of occurrences indica- 
tive of the nascent improvement in the reciprocal feelings of the 
vo Countries. The liberal views expressed to me twenty seven 
ars ago, in behalf of Lord Grey’s Administration, the strongest 
id purest whig ministry that England had seen for fifty years, 
9on the subject of impressment, were significant of a determination 
9 remove, to the greatest practicable extent, all irritating’ questions 
in our public relations and the voluntary abandonment by the Ad- 
nistration of Lord Derby—one which in former days would have 
m denominated high tory,—of the right of search shows with 
al clearness that the same disposition not only still exists but 


I 


492 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. fe 
a 

that it has extended itself to both of the great political parties c 
that Country. In short the feelings of the English people of a 
ranks towards us have, I am thoroughly satisfied, become as nearl: 
right as can ever be expected to animate one powerful nation towards 
another which is in many respects a rival. They may not consent 
to give up or even to modify their long cherished establishment of 
King, Lords and Commons to satisfy our democratic scruples, or 
to surrender to us anything that we have not a right to ask, but I 
am quite certain that there is nothing in reason that they would 
not do to preserve our friendship and it should be the earnest desire 
of every well wisher to his Country among’ us that. we should -not 
be backward in reciprocating this disposition to the fullest extent. — 
i cannot refrain from expressing at this place (and in this form), 
nearly a year after the text was written the satisfaction I have de 
rived from seeing in the course pursued by so influential a paper a 
the London Times in respect to and against the efforts of the aboli- 
tionists to dissolve our blessed Union, the strongest proof of the 
sure progress in England of the sentiments I have been pressin 9 
upon the favorable consideration of my countrymen. The assur- 
ance coming from so imposing a quarter, that the interest of Great 
Britain in the United States is to England second only in impor. 
tance to our own, and that for the very reasons upon which I haye 
touched. These noble sentiments are rendered the more gratifying 
and made more likely to be useful in consequence of the general and 
to a great extent well founded belief here that this disturbing senti- 
ment, after it had been reduced to a low ebb in this country had 
been resuscitated and in a great degree strengthened by the coun- 
tenance its members received at Exeter Hall. 
No intelligent and tolerably unprejudiced American can be long 
in England without witnessing exhibitions of character and feelings 
in all classes with which he will be pleased because of their recalling 
similar traits among his own countrymen. Those whose contempla- 
tion is engrossed with the pageantry inseparable from monarchical 
and aristocratic institutions may be unable to comprehend this state- 
ment, but it is nevertheless true. My memory is full freighted with 
recollections of that description which go far to show an active sym- 
pathy on many important points between us devoted republicans and 
those fast adherents of a Kingly Government. Of these it was my 
intention to speak, but this subject has been already and in a manner, — 
unconsciously, so much extended that I must forbear. I saw many 
things in England, in the organization of her Government, in the — 
classifications of society which that organization has produced and 
in the disparity of personal privileges its members respectively enjoy, 
ORES Ee ad, = 


aFeby 5, 1860. 


“4 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 493 


the establishment of which here I would deprecate with all my heart 
and resist by every possible means. I have a deep and abiding sense 
of the superiority of our own political institutions and of their social 
effects. But these are questions, as I have already said, which, upon 
pur Own principles, each nation has the right to determine for itself. 
They do not complain when we express our opinions upon these sub- 
je ts abroad with the freedom with which we treat them at home 
because they are not thin-skinned and no man whose opinions are of 
any consequence will express them officiously or for the purpose of 
amnoyance. As a people, taking them all and in all, it cannot be 
lenied that they possess, in a very eminent degree, the qualities which 
conduce to individual respectability and usefulness and which consti- 
tute the elements of a powerful and magnanimous nation. It is for 
, among many reasons, the interest of the United States to culti- 
vate the most liberal and friendly relations with them and the duty 
of those who are, from time to time, entrusted with the management 
of our external concerns, to make it their business to promote that 
object by all the means in their power that may consist with justice 
and with national honor. 

° This it will be easier to effect in the future than it has been in the 
Distrust of the friendliness of England, with the prejudices 
atural to that feeling, have constituted from the beginning a promi- 
jent and distinguishing trait of the old-republican, now democratic 
garty. To arrest, present and to guard against future violations of 
the Federal Constitution, to secure to the people the full enjoyment 
¢ the republican institutions contemplated by that instrument and 
0 protect the Country against the evils that were apprehended from 
an undue partiality for England were the principal objects designed 
0 be accomplished by its formation, and the distrust and prejudice to 
thich I have referred retained their prominence and influence in the 
ion of that party until the War of 1812. That war was its act. Its 
itical] opponents had neither part nor lot in declaring or in sup- 
pting it. The peace of 1815 was also its measure. It was in its 
m, and there alone, that a change of feeling was necessary to 
ablish friendship between the two Countries. The effects produced 
‘the peace and the altered disposition of the Government and people 
England towards us which I have described have been to me a sub- 
t of deep interest and gratifying observation. What I say of the 
tical organization in which I have been reared and which has 
rer ceased to be with me an object of love and admiration doubtless 
be reccived by the general reader cwm grano salis: I expect no 


ie 


°MS. Book V, p. 1. 


494 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.  __ 


If the old republican party, whether known by that or b: 
present name, has not been able to live up to the divine injunc 
to love our neighbour as ourselves or to do unto others as we wo 
have them do unto us, it may I think with truth, be said to hav 
desired invariably and sincerely to treat all nations as they treat 
us. That was a shibboleth of its foreign policy at its organization 
and I think has always since distinguished it. The old federal 
party charged it with partiality to France and the charge was re- 
torted in respect to federal preference for England. It is now 
perhaps too late to determine that issue even if it were necessary. 
As far as the sense of the Country is conclusive evidence of the truth 
it has been decided against the federal party. ; 

The application of the principle of reciprocity in the commercial 
. intercourse of nations, which originated with Mr. Jefferson, wa 
supported by Mr. Matiican at the commencement of our present Gov 
ernment and has thenceforward constituted an article in the cree 
of the political party of which they were leaders, furnishes a pr: 
tical illustration of their views and perferences in regard to inter 
national relations. The relaxation of prejudices against Engle 
and a cordial reciprocation of every liberal measure she might ad 
became accordingly a duty which they performed thoroughly tho 
somewhat tardily as their disposition and determination to do in tl 
end what was required of them were closely accompanied by cautior 
and perhaps clogged by distrust. 4 

The accession to power of the republican party at a period whe 
their prejudices against England were the strongest, and their pos 
session of it by large majorities for more than half a century, had 
given to those prejudices the appearance of a national sentimer 
and it has been amusing to witness the extent to which the conced 
existence of this feeling has served as a lure to aspiring politicians 
and particularly to those who have had their eyes upon the Presi 
dency, tempting them to seek to appropriate its influence by profes 
sions of peculiar sensibility on the subject of the injustice we have 
suffered from England. That game in politics has been, perhaps no 
exclusively but chiefly, played by gentlemen a principal pa of 
whose previous lives had been spent in the ranks of the old feder 
party, but who, nevertheless, consulting the chances of success, deeme 
it indispensable to bring themselves ‘into harmony with the demo 
cratic sentiment of the Country in this regard. Mr. John Quing 
Adams was the first of his class who undertook to extract political 
capital for a Presidential canvass from this matter, and his earliest 
movement, after entering upon his duties as Secretary of State— 
a post then looked upon as a necessary step to that of President—wa 
to astound the Federal Capitol with his fiery denunciations of the 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 495 


uct of England towards these States. Altho’ in the main an 
ght Statesman, no man studied more closely than he the cur- 
s of political opinion or was more willing to avail himself of 
influence. He was well aware of the strong prejudices against 
family that existed in the rank and file of the old republican 
party and of the necessity of their amelioration, before his elevation 
fo the Presidency could be deemed practicable, and no less conscious 
this could not be effected thro’ common efforts but only by those 
01 = boldest character adequate to command the attention of the 
aasses and to stir up and direct their passions. His Fourth of J uly 
=a at Washington, delivered by the leading Member of the 
Jabinet during the first year of Mr. Monroe’s Presidency and con- 
Saag the actual state of public feeling, he believed to be such an 
ffort. The scorn of propriety exhibited in this harangue in view 
of 9f the official position of the author and of the presence, as a part of 
iis pp audience, of the Diplomatic Corps, including the English Min- 
ter, and the extreme violence with which he arraigned the conduct 
f the English Government accomplished at least one of his objects— 
of creating a great sensation in this Country, which was, with 
on, believed to have exerted considerable influence on his ulti- 
e advancement to the summit of his ambition. His success gave 
fascination to his example. Among the first to follow it. was the 
vorthy and amiable gentleman Mr. Lewis Cass—in his early years 
an n ardent admirer of Mr. Adams, his family and their politics, even 
fo mounting the black cockade, if his old federal friends told the 
4 ith of him at a time when they thought he was growing, as Hamil- 
m said of Jefferson, “too much in earnest in his republicanism.” 
a resident of the far West, where ancient antipathies between 
wo Countries have not equally felt the subduing influences of in- 
sing commerce and intercourse and where they are yet supposed 
tain a portion of their former violence, he allowed his sense of \ 
injuries we have received from Great Britain and his consequent 
neiation of her to be inflamed in the ratio of the improvement 
is chances for the Presidency. His sensibilities upon this point 
become so sharpened and his expression of them so strong and 
rious as to convey the impression to some of his cotemporaries 
onomania, and not a few were, on that account solely, appre- 
ve of disturbing effects upon the existing relations between 
two Countries which might follow his selection as Secretary of 
by Mr. Buchanan. Aware of the existence and spread of this 
I requested my friend Mr. Alexander Duncan, who was desirous 
should meet the English Envoy, Lord Napier, at his house on 
arrival in this Country, to call the attention of the latter 


°MS. V, p. 5. 


496 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


to it and to assure him from me that if he entertained such appre 
hensions he would soon be undeceived; that on the contrary the Sec 
retary was the last man to press to extremities any point in 0 
relations with England in which we were not manifestly right an 
that even there he would find him a peacemaker. With the accep 
ance, at his advanced age, of the office he now fills with credit to 
himself and usefulness to the Country Gen. Cass doubtless renounce 
every thought of ever reaching the higher and cherished aim of h 
previous life and with that resolution has discontinued his wontec 
invectives against England. 
President Buchanan himself, tho’ habitually a more cautious mar 
than his Secretary of State, has played a scarcely less plain and fa 
more successful part in the same game. Like him his early no 
proclivities only but open and responsible action were on the federal 
side. He too felt the expediency not to say necessity, of making h 
change of position more effectual by taking conspicuous ground of 
some point in favor of which the feelings of the party to which he 
transferred his political hopes were supposed to be especially hig! 
strung—to pass through a political baptism of sufficient efficac 
to wash away somewhat inveterate prejudices. Attracted perhap 
by the success which had crowned Mr. Adams’ movements he fol 
lowed in his footsteps in one respect, and clothed himself with th 
anti-English grudge to which he has adhered through the subsequen 
periods of his public life and amidst repeated disappointments wi 
the tenacity of purpose characteristic of his race, and a steadi 7 
that does as much credit to his perseverance as to ie pei ] 
more discreet than his Secretary in the exhibition of his feelin 
in this regard he has taken special care that they should never | 
for a moment misunderstood. His appointment as Envoy to I ni 
land by President Pierce was nothing more or less than the r 
moval of a rival believed to be dangerous to a point where it wa 
thought he could do the least harm to the interest of the incumbei 
in the question of the succession. Doubtless the public interest wi 
not lost sight of but its promotion was plainly not the special objeet 
of the selection. It was considered a shrewd movement which ho 
ever worked injuriously to the interest it was designed to subse 
as such arrangements are apt to do. Whatever may have been t 2 
effect of Mr. Buchanan’s elevation to the Presidency and of t 
possession of its overshadowing powers upon himself, he was, 2 
suredly, before that occurrence, a cautious, circumspect and sagacl 
man, amply endowed with those clear perceptions of self inte 
and of duties as connected with it that are almost inseparable fi 
the Scotch character. If he supposed that his rivals in the G 
ernment allowed themselves to hope that his known anti-Englis 


/ 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN, 497 


gs would lead him to do or to omit some act by which his 
sition at home might be impaired, that of itself would have de- 
rmined him to disappoint them; but he had higher and wiser in- 
ucements to keep his official course free from just exceptions and 
ie did so keep it decidedly and indisputably. At the same time 
he took care that his bearing at the English Court should not be 
ich as to cause him to lose cast with the Democracy at*home by 
fiording them reason to suspect that any Royal or social blandish- 
ments had weakened his cordial sympathy with that anti-English 
yrejudice which he believed to be still vigorous in the democratic 
' Accordingly in his personal intercourse with the. social 
les of London he produced a very general impression that 
gland and the English were not much esteemed by him—a 
poin not a whit clearer to the parties concerned than he desired 
t to be; consequently his relations other than official, with the 
Cov ead with the general society in which he moved were 
ndered perhaps in a small degree less agreeable. To a man 
f his temperament and time of life this was a minor annoyance, 
specially as foreign ministers are invariably treated at that Court 
with an outward courtesy and consideration, without reference to 
_ personal feelings towards the individual, and as what was under- 
: es to be his standing with the English Court and society was 
ng in his opinion, a compensating effect at home. I spent a 
onth or two in Tiondon not long before his return and had abundant 
ortunities to enable me to speak with certainty in regard to 
points I have touched upon, and to discover the general belief 
at England had something to apprehend from Mr. Buchanan’s 
elevation to the Presidency and the consequent general, tho’ quiet. 
d ation of such an event. It would not be proper to describe 
re particularly the extent of the knowledge which I happened 
) acquire as to the prevalence of this solicitude or as to the high 
uarters to which it reached. I gave to inquirers the assurances which 
[ repeated to Lord Napier, in respect to Gen. Cass, and referred 
9 Mr. Buchanan’s official action upon the subjects which had been 
nd were then under discussion between the two Governments to 
satisfy them that their apprehensions of special danger from the 
sult referred to were without adequate foundation. 
Mr. Webster, also, amazed at the superior advancement in popu- 
r favor of men whose capacities he naturally regarded as inferior 
» his own, seemed at one time to have arrived at the conclusion 
tt the disparity was attributable to the greater zeal they mani- 
ed in resisting the aggressions of Great Britain; under the im- 
of which impression he resolved to make pioilieg effort to 
ach an object which no man in the Country ever pursued with 
' =127483°—vor 2—20 32 


2 \ ae 
498 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. be 


more eagerness or with less prospect of success but which he once 
dreamed of achieving by the manifestation of grief and rage, a 
uncontrollable as they were sudden, excited in his breast by the 
hostility of England towards the United States. An occasion for 
his first appearance in this character was soon presented. 

The British North American Colonies charged encroachment bya 
our fishermen upon waters from which it was claimed that they 
were excluded by the Convention of 1800 between Great Britain 
and the United States, and presented complaints to the Home Goy- 
ernment. The Colonial Secretary issued a Circular in reply to their 
memorial in which he intimated the intention of the Government 
to send out a naval force sufficient to compel the exclusion of the ~ 
American fishermen from the waters in question. This Circular, 
on its publication in the Colonial newspapers, produced a great 
ferment in the New England States, and, instead of pursuing the 
usual course of a call upon the British Minister here for explana- 
tions, Mr. Webster published in the newspapers also, a formal an- 
nouncement from the Department of State, over which he presided, 
under date of July 6, 1852, to the fishermen and all concerned, of 
the designs of the British Government, with such comments as he 
thought the occasion called for and which were calculated to in- 
crease the excitement. A meeting was thereupon called in the 
neighbourhood of his residence, in Massachusetts, at which spirited 
resolutions denouncing the course pursued by England were passed 
and a delegation was appointed to meet Mr. Webster, on his ar- 
rival at Marshfield, where he was expected in a few days, to wel- 
come him and to communicate with him on the subject of their 
proceedings. On the 25th of the same month he met that delegation 
ut his own house and made a speech to them from which the fol- 
lowing -are extracts: " 

The fishermen [he said] might bé assured that their interests would not be 
neglected by the Government. They shall be protected in all their rights of 
property and in all the rights of occupation. To use a Marblehead phr 
they shall be protected “hook and line—bob and sinker’—and why should the} 
not? They employ a vast number; many of our people are engaged in th 
vocation. There are perhaps among you some who have been on the Gr 
Banks for ten successive years and there hung on to the ropes in storm 4 
wreck. a 

The most potent consequences are involved in this matter. Our fishe ies 
have been the very nurseries of our navy * * * In the first place the sud- 
den interruption of the pursuits of our ° citizens which had been carried on 
more than thirty years that they have pursued the fishing in the same waters 
and on the same coast, in which and along which notice has now come that they 
should be no longer allowed their privileges. Now this cannot be justifies d 
without notice. A mere indulgence of too long continuance, eyen if the ie vi- 


° MS, V, p. 10. 


_ AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 499 


> an indulgence, cannot be withdrawn at this season of the year, when 
ple, according to their custom have engaged in the business, without 
reasonable notice. I cannot but think the late despatches from the 
office had not attracted to a sufficient degree the attention of the 
Minister of the Crown; for I see matter in them quite inconsistent 
> arrangement made in 1845 by the Harl of Aberdeen and Edward 
ett. Then the Harl of Derby, the present Minister, was Colonial Secre- 

It could not well have taken place without his knowledge, and, in fact, 
his concurrence and sanction. I cannot but think therefore that its 
rerlooked is an inadvertence. The treaty of 1818 was made with the 
of England. If a fishing vessel is captured by one of her vessels of 
brought in for adjudication, the Crown of England is answerable, and 
know whom we have to deal with. But it is not to be expected that 
ed States will submit their rights to be adjudicated upon by the petty 
s of the Provinces or that they will allow our vessels to be seized 
fables and other petty officers, and condemned by municipal courts of 
and New Foundland, New Brunswick or Noval Scotia! No, No, No! 


a its appearance in England the British Annual Register, in 
joderate and guarded language common to that journal accom- 
d the publication of the preceding extract with the following 
ents, to the force of which we would not find it easy to refuse 


was, to say the least, very imprudent language to be held by a Minister 
while negotiations were pending for settling the dispute in an ami- 
Manner. Happily no collision of any kind took place. 
s proceeding on Mr. Webster’s part bore unmistakable marks 
sene got up for effect; nor was the public mind for a moment 
bt either as to the fact that such was its true character or 
d to the particular effect aimed at. The success of this 
of policy, by means of which he hoped to enlist in his favor, 
‘then approaching Presidential canvass, whatever of national 
il towards England there yet remained among us would, to 
nsiderable extent, depend upon the manner of its reception in 
; Country. If her public men had allowed themselves to become 
excited by the challenge he had with so little ceremony and 
much peremptoriness thrown before her and had sent back an 
ity belligerent missive against him and those he represented, 
ser men might have done, Mr. Webster’s game would have 
‘auspiciously and there is no saying to what height he might 
ye been elevated in the leadership he coveted. But they, for- 
7 for the interests of both Countries, were men of sense and 
und and improved ample occasions to make themselves ac- 
d with Mr. Webster’s character as a public man. They had 
at the Court of their King and hobnobbed with him, also, 
‘enjoyments to which neither were indifferent. Their lead- 
of business, who. from their natural acuteness and their 


500 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


unequalled opportunities to gain experience afforded by an ex- 
tensive intercourse with all nations, have established a world-wide 
reputation for sagacity and discernment, had taken his professional 
advice in respect to transactions partly public and partly private, 
and of great importance, and their Minister had carried on weighty 
negotiations with him and thro’ him here. It would, under such 
circumstances, have been strange indeed if they had failed thor- 
oughly to inform themselves of his character and dispositions, his 
strength and his weaknesses. They had not so neglected their duty. 
Their Ministers understood him perfectly and took no offence at 
the bravado in which he had indulged. They placed the same con- 
struction upon his belligerent speech to his Marshfield neighbours 
that was readily placed upon it here—that of a device, a weak one 
as we knew it to be, to seduce prejudiced and precipitate democrats 
into his support for the Presidency; a post they desired him above 
all others to occupy for they had already dealt with him while he 
substantially wielded its powers, but they had too much self respect, 
I may well add too much respect for the Country, to play into his 
hands by making themselves a party to the artifice in which their 
cooperation was invited, and they therefore allowed this flare up 
of the Secretary of State to pass sub silentio. 

But the English press, acting under less responsibility and in its 
usual and creditable straight forward character, spoke without hesi- 
tation or reserve and painted the transaction in its true colors as a 
coup de théatre, struck for political effect. This representation from 
the other side, according with the conviction immediately produced 
on this, of course robbed the whole matter of its serious elements, and 
when remembered at all, it is now familiarly spoken of as the occa 
sion of Mr. Webster’s “ bob and sinker” speech. The fruits, in the 
Presidential canvass, of his anti English ebullition and of his equall 
sudden and radical change of position on the slave question, as it was 
presented at the time, both movements indicating an ignorance of 
the real character and disposition of our people, were witnessed im 
the votes given in the National Convention of his party which fo! 
lowed for the nomination of a Presidential candidate, and which 
were thus divided: Scott, 159, Fillmore, 112, Webster, 21. 


1 Whig Convention at Baltimore, which convened, June 16, 1852. 


FE OE ee 


CHAPTER XXXIV. 


heal 


__ Few of our public men were more identified, in the earlier periods 
of his public life with the national resentments towards England 
_ than Mr. Clay, or did more.to fasten them in the popular heart. He 
commenced his career in the Federal Government in the Senate of 
_the United States in 1806, was subsequently transferred to the House 
_ of Representatives and was several times Speaker of that body. Con- 
_tinuing his public service in one or the other position till the break- 
“ing out of the war between us and England in 1812 he exerted great 
‘influence in preparing the public mind for that event and in pro- 
ducing its declaration by Congress with the sanction of the Executive. 
In these preliminary scenes, in his support of the cause of his 
country during the progress of the war and in the negotiation of 
‘the peace that followed it Mr. Clay passed by far the brightest peri- 
ods of his public life. His vehement denunciations of British ag- 
‘gression and of those among us who would have extenuated them 
and his eloquent appeals to his countrymen to prove themselves 
equal to the exigencies of the crisis served to stimulate the feelings 
of which we are speaking, and with which he was still more thor- 
oughly associated by his residence in the patriotic State of Kentucky, 
among whose heroic citizens the justifiers and supporters of the war 
found a cordial sympathy. But after the change in his political 
Position, which took root at the peace and was regularly progressive 
‘until he became the facile princeps of the successors of old federal- 
ism, appeals to that antipathy towards England which he had 
helped to plant so deeply in the breasts of his fellow citizens would 
have been awkward and out of place to say nothing of other and 
higher motives which I am willing to believe induced him to abstain 
from them. In one instance which was the only one I can call to 
mind and in itself trivial and only good naturedly mischievous, he 
‘Seemed inclined to try a small pull upon the old string for election- 
eering purposes. After my return to Washington from the English 
‘Mission, our first meeting occurred in public in the Hall of the Repre- 
sentatives under circumstances which will be hereafter noticed, and 
| Was marked by very hearty salutations-on his part. On leaving me 
he returned to thesSenate Chamber and, throwing himself into the 
debate which happened to be going on with his usual facility of 
bringing out what he wanted to say, @ pro-pos of anything or noth- 


501 


i 


[ 
: 
|= 


502 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


ing wound up his other observations, more or less pertinent, with this 
or something like it: “By the bye, I have just had the pleasure ¢ 
shaking hands in the other House with our late Minister to Englanc 
Mr. Van Buren, and was gratified to find him in excellent healt 
and appearing to great advantage in° his English dress: »_a good 
humored description intended for the western market. S 
But I have perhaps given too much space and time to this topic 
Suffice it that the game I have alluded to has been played out. ¢ 
good sense and good feeling of our people will no longer tolerat 
appeals to prejudices which the conduct of both Countries has show 
that both have long since determined to bury and to forget. 
The vote of the Senate upon my nomination gave rise to tW 
questions upon which it became necessary that I should decide ¢ 
London, and in respect to which different opinions were entertaine 
among my friends. The excitement of the occasion and a naturalh 
augmented anxiety about my political fortunes made those differ 
ences more earnest and importunate than they might otherwise hay 
been. They related to the period of my return and the most expe 
dient course to be adopted to secure my future advancement. — c 
McLane, who, from the close intimacy that had long existed betwee 
us and the marked solicitude I had shown for his promotion, w: 
extensively regarded as among the warmest and most cordial of m 
friends, took immediate and very decided ground upon both point 
He thought that I ought to return immediately—that my frien 
Mr. Dudley should be asked to resign his seat m the Senate of t 
United States to enable the Legislature of New York, then in se 
sion, to appoint me to his place and that I should come to Washin 
ton before the adjournment and challenge a review of the deci sic 
which had been made by that body. Mr. McLane had, it appeare 
applied to a number of my friends to sanction his advice, altho’ 
do not find by my papers nor have I any recollection that he pr 
posed it directly to me. Several of them dissented earnestly, ane 
some with manifest impatience, from the course thus indie 
and among these were some who had sustained me from the 
ning and in whose discretion I placed the highest confidence. Pr 
ident Jackson, after having been twice applied to by Mr. McLane 
sent for my friend Mr. Cambreleng who communicated the result ©: 
the interview, with his own opinion, in the following letter: ; 
WasHINGTON, 28th Jan. 183: 

My DEAR Si, sis 5 
I was last evening at McLane’s, who told me that he had hit upon the ver 
plan for you, which, he further said, had met the approbation of all with whor 
he had conferred—viz: for you to come immediately back & come into th 
Senate &ec. &c. &c., to all which I simply answered that I non-concurred. Thi 


°MS. V, p. 15. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 503 


rning I had a message from the President that he wished to see me—and 
found that our friend had consulted with the P., and I presume it was at 
ane’s suggestion that he sent for me. I told him that I was decidedly 
posed to Mr. McLane’s plan of having you hurry home to pop into the Senate 
_at the tail of the session for no earthly purpose which May be not ten times bet- 
ter effected in another way. The old gentleman said that you had more common 
Sense and good judgment than any man in the world, and that he would leave it 
a ntirely to yourself. 

_ My plan is that you should not arrive till about the time of (the third Mon- 
‘aay in May) or rather a week or two after the meeting of the Baltimore Con- 
vention. You will be greeted by thousands—you will be received in tr lumph, 
Heia you will have the finest opportunity imaginable to address the whole 
‘Union—and after all the speeches, reports, &c., &c., have been made in Congress 
on the tariff (about which we shall do nothing)—and appear among us as a 
‘Mediator on that great & momentous question. Leave your adversaries to strut 
¥ n their own dung-hill—to all their dirty honors—carry yourself above them— 
“do not sully yourself by even coming in contact with them. This scheme of 
MelLane’s will remind you that small heads may manage—but give me a large 
head for judgment ; if he had had that he never would have made his Report at 
‘Such a crisis. What earthly advantage you are to gain by jumping into the 
‘Se nate to discuss a question of adjournment, I cannot possibly conceive—for I 
‘look upon the last three weeks of the session as nothing for debate—or for 
any hing that can serve you. No good can come out of it—harm might. Ad- 
us on your return—address the American People (before whom you will 
then be a candidate) and not the Senate of the U. States. 

; Sincerely yours 


C. C. CAMBRELENG 
The opinions and advice of Mr. Cambreleng were fully concurred 
in by Mr. Silas Wright and by Senator Mee and the latter com- 
municated other grave and conclusive considerations in their favor. 
ho’ I then gave McLane entire credit for being actuated by 
iendly motives I did not entertain a doubt as to the course proper 
for me to pursue in justice to my position both in England and at 
home, which was to stay at my post until men’s opinions had been 
med in respect to the conduct of my opponents and to postpone 
my return to the United States until after the Democratic National 
Convention, which, it was supposed, would take some action upon 
e subject, had been held. I so decided, and communicated that 
ision to my friends in my answer to a letter received from the 
mocratic citizens of the city of New York.t 

The attention of my friends, with few exceptions, in considering 
he best mode of meeting the violence of my enemies, was directed 
the Vice Presidential office, and a strong desire was formed that 
10uld be nominated for election to it. I received several letters 
that effect one of which was from my friend William L. } Marcy,” 
en at Washington discharging the duties of a Senator. This was 
the first time that the same course had been proposed to me, 


+1832, Feb. 24, in the Van Buren Papers. 21832, Feb. 12, ibid. 


504 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, — 


and better justice will be done to my reply to Mr. Marge it 
by going back to the transaction to which I refer, by which x 
slso a fitting opportunity will be presented to explain another 1 reg 
ture in my public life already casually alluded to in these page 
and hitherto but imperfectly understood. 
Mr. Ingham,’ appointed by President Jackson as Secretary 
the Treasury, was I am quite certain the only member of his Cab 
inet who entered it with anything like a decided wish in respect 
to the succession. Nothing was more unfounded than the imp: as 
sion extensively made upon the public mind that the President hac 
formed his Cabinet with a view to promote a particular desigi 
upon this subject by which to gratify either a preference or @ 
antipathy. Mr. Calhoun, unfortunately for himself, took up the 
opposite idea and never abandoned it, viz: that his exclusion ant 
my advancement were the objects which the General intended & 
further. On the other hand Colonel Benton, claiming to speai 
as one who knows, says that down to the time of his election th 
General looked to Mr. Calhoun as his successor. Nothing ever cam 
to my knowledge either to confirm or to disprove this statemen 
but if it was correct it may safely be assumed that no cireumsta 
had occurred between the period mentioned and that of tial 
tion of his Cabinet of a nature to change his views upon that pom 
Mr. Ingham possessed a sound discriminating mind and h 
furnished it with useful knowledge especially applicable to mai 
of the branches of the public service committed to his supervisio 
Although he cannot be said to have acquired a very marked di 
tinction in the performance of any of them during the short t 
that he was in office his administration of the important De 
ment over which he presided was in a general way creditable a an 
it was, without question, conducted by him with a strict 
to the public interest. Devotedly attached to Mr. na 
whom he had long served in Congress, he was very desiro' 
secure his nomination at the time when General Jackson becan 
the choice of the great body of the republican party, including - 
Ingham’s own State—Pennsylvania. He supported the Ger 
election with fidelity, but, I have no doubt, with an undiminishe 
desire to see Mr. Calhoun thus elevated and with a firm purp 
to continue to exert himself, within the limits of propriety, to pi 
mote his chances for the succession. The gratification of that ° w 
became a passion with him and to it he eventually ori 
influential position he had for many years occupied in the pf 
of Pennsylvania. His nomination to the Treasury Department 


2 Samuel D. Ingham. ° MS. V, p. 20. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 505 


a united and unusually pressing request to the Presi- 
the delegation in Congress from that State. He par- 
y of Mr. Calhoun’s suspicions in regard as well to the 
designs as to my own aspirations, and was determined 
he could, without any culpable failure in duty, to 
a. To this end, whilst giving me no cause for personal 
set himself, quietly but resolutely, to watch the move- 
the Administration, to obstruct steps which he thought 
a the obnoxious direction, and to avoid making himself a 
to any act by which he might be embarrassed when the time 
arrive to take open ground against my advancement. This 
se and these feelings were manifested in a thousand ways. 
2em. and perhaps the first that excited my attention, I have 
spoken of in connection with the appointment of Swart- 
Collector of the Customs at the port of New York. As to 
ies that did not fall within the purview of this by-play 
there was a remarkable concurrence of opinion between 
im respect to all that did so fall our relations resembled 
se of fair but decided opponents than those which would 
ted to exist between leading members and co-adjutors in 
istration in the success of which we had a common in- 
Estimating -his conduct in connection with speculations 
mes which soon came to occupy large spaces in men’s minds 
the public press I could not, of course, long be at a loss in 
to his thoughts or motives. 
plain that, looking upon me as a rival of Mr. Calhoun for 
ssion, he desired to maintain with me, in the situation in 
p, for the time being, were placed, a kind of armed neu- 
rather an armistice to terminate in a certain and inexo- 
umption of hostilities, and I felt no disposition to balk his 
Yet, now—when there can be no possible motive for the 
oN or misrepresentation of facts—I solemnly declare that 
entirely mistaken in the belief upon which he acted. When 
to Washington the idea of becoming Gen. Jackson’s suc- 
d never acquired the slightest lodgement in my mind. If 
iency of taking steps to aid in the accomplishment of that 
been at that early period, brought to my consideration, I 
esitatingly have taken ground against them as incon- 
ith the relation in which I looked upon myself as stand- 


506 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


myself acquiesced in the accession of the latter ss ae 
after the expiration of Jackson’s second term, My be 
quently placed in a different position on this question was ¢ 
owing to the events which I have just now refered te 
to the bitter attacks that were made upon me under the saul 
roneous impressions by which Mr. Ingham was aca : 
for them President Jackson would, I am now quite confid 

suffered the question to pass to its settlement without agli 
ference on his part. I am, at all events, entirely certain tha 
did not arrive at the conclusion to favor my election to the B 
dency until some time after the occurrences to which I have rei en 
I remember well the first time this subject was introduced by 
It was during one of our rides over the Georgetown Hills, in 
autumn of 1830, some six or seven months after the receipt of 
Calhoun’s letter to him about the Seminole transaction, and 
the United States Telegraph newspaper, which was well under: 
to reflect the political sentiments of the latter, had given unmi 
able indications of a rupture with and open opposition to t 
ministration on the part of Mr. Calhoun’s friends and himself 

ing the next session of Congress. He spoke of the resolatinal 
formed at the period of his election to serve only one terr 
referring to the seemingly insurmountable obstacles which h 
arisen to the fulfillment of this intention and to the pro Dal li 
the early developments of the opposition against his administ1 
which had for some time been in course of preparation, 
his thoughts had been turned to the selection of some middle ¢ 
by which his wish for an early retirement might be gratified y 
hazarding the accomplishment of the measures he had enter 
and the success of which he deemed essential to the national y 
He had not, he added, been able to hit upon any plan so pro 
that I shih stand for the Vice Presidency on the ticket with I 
the next election and, if successful, that he should resign im one > 
or, if it should be necessary, at the expiration of the second y : 
his new term. The feelings eS which this proposition was ret 
are as fresh in my recollection as they were at the moment i 
made. I could neither be ignorant of, nor insensible to 
share of personal kindness towards ae which had giver 
to this suggestion beside his constant desire to promote the | 
interest; and that consideration, in addition to the earnestnes 
which ie habitually embraced propositions which ee 
for some time before he brought them forward, demanded g 
cumspection in giving the requisite answer to it. But I cow 
nothing but danger to myself in the proposition and, as I the 
to his own great popularity, and was deeply sensible of the n 
of giving to it a prompt negative. I thanked him for the ki nc 
& 


3 


_ AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 507 


ce a iungeeligmmatilee which fully satis- 
sat I appreciated it as I ought. I did not affect indiffer- 
e end his proposition looked to—that of my ultimate eleva- 
ency, admitted it to have become an object within 
of my ambition, but appealed to him for the truth of the 
Nt crane: sail catcher anything whilst: 1 had been 
Statik him in the pablic service which could give him or any 
on to think that my mind was occupied in the promotion of 
yjec et by any other means than by the faithful performance 
yicial duties. To this appeal he responded warmly and satis- 
I then placed before him all the objections that occurred 
he moment against the adoption of the course he suggested. 
I justice to the purity of his own motive, I spoke of the 
m that would be placed upon the step by our enemies. 
@ was moved by considerations of a public character, look- 
fi to the perfection of the great public measures he had in 
tion and upon some of which he had already entered, they 
or the proceeding as a selfish intrigue designed to 
me into the Presidency and to gratify his own rexat 
imainst those to whose elevation he was opposed; to these 


= 


est declaration that altho I See scaleeeh lee kanes 
sion of the Presidential office, I could not for a moment hesitate 
¥ Ss a pexpcivaal velinquishmont of it and an at- 


7 moved by the course of my remarks, but in no degree° 
ive of any imputations upon the step, so far as they might 

sd to affect himself. The people in whose good sense and 
ht feeline he had never been disappointed, would, he said, do 

ice to his motives; but he acknowledged that he had not suffi- 

sidered the difference between his own situation and mine- 
nt perhaps, he thought, with feelings of equal, kindness to 
be induced to apply a different rule im respect io the 
‘of such a step, as between the man who by means of it was 
p himself of great honor and with him who was receiving it 
neral’s letter to me of the — day of 183 3 which was 
ih ge ane wil bn tome toon» 
ference to this conversation, in speaking of the probability 
a = a candidate for the office of Vice President agamst 


= was abandoned and although he throughout cherished 
= to lay down his office at the earliest practicable 
is resignation was not again proposed, nor was he ever in 


Ss. ¥, nm 2 2 Dec. 6, 1831, im the Vam Bares Papers. 


508 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


a situation to make it with propriety. It will be borne in mind th ut 
when I agreed to accept the English Mission I expressed to 
General my opinion that the step I was about to take could not be 
and should not be regarded in any other light than that of a re- 
linquishment of any pretensions my friends might think I possessed 
to succeed him in the Presidency, and that I inferred from his 
silence that he felt constrained to believe that such would be its 
effect. But he soon changed that opinion, or never adopted it “in 
the sense I did. As early as the 5th of September, 1831, within 
eight weeks after I left him, he wrote as follows: 


Notwithstanding the high opinion I entertain of the talents and worth of 
my present Cabinet and the confidence I have in them, still there appears a 
vacancy by your absence and our faithful Eaton, that is not filled. Mr. Me 
Lane’s mind is a host to me and with him and Barry,? in whom I know I can 
under any circumstances confide—with the goodness and amiability and high 
talents of the others, I have no doubt we shall steer the national vessel into a 
safe port. Still I cannot but regret your absence. We have been so fortunate 
with our foreign relations hitherto that I would regret [that] any fauzr-pas 
should occur hereafter. I cannot close without again repeating that I hope 
circumstances will occur to enable me to return to the Hermitage in due season - 
and set an example worthy to be followed and give an evidence to my country 
that I never had any other ambition than that of serving my country when 
she required it, and, when I know it could be better served by others, to open 
the door for their employment; you will understand me? 


Nothing having occurred that required me to deviate from the 
the course which circumstances had pointed out for me, I took no 
notice of these suggestions, as will be seen by my reply to this letter. 
But he did not allow my silence to prevent him from returning to 
the subject frequently and in his letter of the 17th of December, 
1831, he expressed himself thus: 


I cannot close, altho’ it is now late, without naming to you confidentially a 
subject which is constantly on my mind; it is this:—If I am reelected and you 
are not called to the Vice Presidency I wish you to return to this country in 
two years from now, if it comports with your views and wishes. I think your — 
Lresence here about that time will be necessary. The opposition would, if 
they durst, try to reject your nomination as Minister, but they dare not,—the 7 
begin to know if they did that the people in mass would take you up-.and ele 
you Vice President without a nomination. Was it not for this, it is said Clay, 
Calhoun & Co. would try it. 

You know Mr. Livingston is anxious to go abroad and I am as anxious to 
have you near me, and it would afferd me pleasure to gratify both. * * * 

I would not be surprised if, contrary to your declared wishes, you should 
be run for Vice-President; as sure as the Senate make the attempt to reje 
your nomination. I am told it will be done. This will bring you back in 
twelve months. If not, then I wish, if reelected, to bring you back as inti- 
mated.® 


+ William T. Barry, Postmaster General! 

?In the Van Buren Papers. The answer, dated Oct. 11, 1831, is also in the Van Buren 
Papers. 

8In the Van Buren Papers. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 509 


The rejection of my nomination followed soon after and in the 
General’s estimation cleared the field from all obstacles. That the 
party ought to nominate me and that I was bound to accept were 
points too clear to him for discussion and this he avowed on all 
suitable occasions. 

The proposal of my friends that I should consent to run for the 
office of Vice President being wholly disconnected from the sug- 
gestions of the President in respect to his ulterior views I felt myself 
ina situation, after the treatment I had received to accept of the 
‘nomination consistently with the principles upon which I had atted, 
“and concurred moreover in the opinion expressed by the President 
‘that I was, under the circumstances, bound to do so if it should 
be presented to me. 

. Entertaining such views of the subject I sent the following answer 
fo Mr. Marcy’s letter: 
; Lonvon, March 14th, 18382. 
“My Dersr Sir: 3 

| I have received your kind letter announcing the desire which has been mani- 

. that I should be-a Candidate for the Vice Presidency, and suggesting 
the propriety of an expression of my feeling on the subject to some one of my 
friends in Washington. 

Of the strong aversion which I have uniformly entertained to this measure 
you, as well as many others, were fully informed before I left the United 
‘States. My private feelings on the subject are unchanged. I cannot regard 
the possession of that post as in any wise likely to promote my happiness or 
“welfare. But whatever may be my individual repugnance, I cannot but feel 
‘the justice of the opinion, expressed as it appears, by a large portion of my 
Yellow Citizens, that recent events have materially changed the condition of 
the question. The President in the recess of Congress had nominated me 
to a foreign and important trust; I had left my native land, and entered, among 
strangers, upon the conspicuous functions of that trust; a majority of the Sen- 
ate have rejected the nomination of the Executive, and publicly divested me 
of my employ when I was executing it in the presence of Europe & America. In 
‘$0 doing they have ° sought to bring discredit upon the act of the President, 
‘and to disgrace me personally in the eyes, not merely of my Fellow Citizens 
but of foreign nations. If the Republicans of the U. States think my elevation 
to the Vice Presidency the most effectual mode of testifying to the world their 
sentiments with respect to the act of the President and the vote of the Senate, 
I can see no justifiable ground for declining to yield to their wishes. 

_ Should a knowledge of this acquiescence on my part be deemed absolutely 
necessary to the harmonious operation of our friends, you are at liberty to 
state it; but not otherwise. 

I would sedulously avoid any act or agency that might appear calculated 
or designed to bring about the result referred to. My paramount desire is that 
my future fate be left to the unbiased decision of the people. 

_ Overwhelmed as I am with the generous sympathy manifested by my coun- 
trymen, I hope & trust, I shall not be thought to meet their confiding frank- 
ness with fastidious reserve. There is a degree of reserve forced upon me, 
however, by the nature of the question, by the peculiarly delicate situation in 


4 
x 
+ 
s 
. 


°MS. V, p. 30, 


510 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. = 2 — 


which I have been placed in regard to it, and by the wanton & persevering mis- 
representations of the whole subject with which the public ear has been abused. 
I am Dr. Sir . 


Very truly yours 
\ MM. Vib: 


Wm. L. Marcy, Esq. 

Having possessed myself of the published debate which took visa 
in the Senate on the occasion, and of all necessary documents, I de- 
voted a sufficient portion of the brief period of my remaining in 
Europe to a critica] examination of the grounds that had been as- 
sumed by the opponents of my nomination in the Senate and an ar- 
rangement of the materials in my hands which were abundantly 
sufficient to demonstrate their fallacy." Of these I intended to avail” 
myself on my public reception at New York, of the design of which 
I had been notified. Finding the city, on my arrival heavily < 
flicted by Cholera, I peered the arrangements that had be 
made for receiving me by hastening to shore and proceeding imme- 
diately to Washington. My contemplated speech was of course no 
delivered. Perceiving that the public mind was wholly engrossec 
with questions arising upon the President’s veto of the Act for the 
recharter of the U. S. Bank, and by other topics of deep interest, and 
assured by friends in whose judgment and coolness I placed implicit 
confidence that the objections to my nomination to the Englis| 
Mission, founded on the instructions to Mr. McLane, were already 
regarded by all my countrymen, who were not blinded by prejudice 
or by political scheming, as unfounded pretences seized upon b; 
partizan Senators to mask a blow aimed at a political opponent, | 
was induced to regard further notice of the affair at that time a 
a matter of supererogation. I need scarcely say that the opinion 
of my friends in respect to the state of public opinion upon = 
subject were fully sustained as well by my election as Vice-Presiden 
which followed my arrival almost immediately, as by that whid 
raised me to the Presidency. 

The notes of my intended speech are now before me and a di 
cussion of the questions involved, with the field to myself, migh 
well be considered an occupation both justifiable and inviting 
But I am not satisfied that, under existing circumstances, I ought 
to indulge myself in that gratification or that there can be ma 
unprejudiced minds with impressions of the whole affair othei 
than those which have been stamped upon it by the repeated ver- 
dicts of the American People. Satisfied with the vindication mj 
character received from these and other sources I will not nov 


carry out the arguments they sustained or even publish them. The} 


1 See Defense of the Administration’s action resulting in Van Buren’s rejection as Min 
ister to England, an autograph draft, 118 pp. under date of 1832, in the Van Bure 
Papers, y 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 511 


ere submitted to Chief Justice Taney and to Col. Benton who 
rere highly pleased with them and the latter speaks approvingly 
f them in his “ Thirty Years in the Senate.” 
I will content myself with some general views of the matter. 
hese will be given not at all with the disposition to cast odium 
m the memory of the principal actors in those scenes, but because 
is due to historical truth, that the main features of a great public 
usaction such as that, carried on in the face and appertaining to 
ne concerns of two great nations, should at least be preserved. 
The assumed ground on which it proceeded was, it will be re- 
embered, the character of the instructions under which Mr. Mc- 
ane acted in obtaining the restoration of the West India trade, 
nd the alleged extent to which those instructions sought to ad- 
mce partizan aims at the expense of the honor and interests of 
nation. Now it so happened that the same subject came before 
he Senate but a short time before and was discussed in a similar 
spect during the administration of Mr. Adams. 
“Among my speeches will be ‘found one delivered by me in that 
ody in which the subjects of the character of the trade, the inter- 
sts of the United States in its maintenance and the steps by which 
s was lost are fully discussed. The questions arose upon a bill re- 
orted by the Chairman of the Coramittee of Commerce, Mr. John- 
fon, of Louisiana, a supporter of Mr. Adams’ administration and 
[r. Clay’s particular and devoted friend; the latter being then 
ecretary of State. The bill contained a proposition which the 
ministration thought best adapted to relieve the subject from the 
barrassments in which it was involved and the passage of which 
o’ Congress iti anxiously desired. I was then, in the general 
e of the term, an opponent of the Administration, but, whilst 
ointed out the errors by which the trade had been lost, I sup- 
ted the measure under consideration. Mr. J ohnston, in reply, ad- 
ed that the amendment I proposed did not differ in substance 
m the bill reported by the Committee, indeed in his opinion, only 
o the mode of doing the same thing: “The gentleman from New 
ork,” said he, “has given a clear statement of the origin and prog- 
Ss of this question; he has stated it evidently with a strong lean- 
ig, he has made some errors and omissions in his facts, and he has 
mn too much weight to the suggestions in regard to the course 
sued by his own Country. But he has arrived, no matter by 
t course of reasoning, to the true conclusion, which is the end 
all debate; to wit: that the interdict must follow. He thinks it 
ould be created by the act of the President; we, by the law. Hav- 
ig agreed in the main object, I shall not stickle about the mode.” 
ecupying the position I did in respect to the Administration, I 
med it proper to speak freely of the obligations of public men 


‘g 


512 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


to forego party feelings when acting upon mattersin issue betweer 
their own and foreign nations. As few will probably be disposed t 
wade thro’ the full discussion of a spent question I venture to trans 
fer to this place some of the concluding sentences of my speech whicl 
were substantially confined to this point: 

I trust, sir, there is no disposition in any part of this House to throy 
the responsibility of their own acts upon those by whom they were oppose 
and shun the consequences which they had themselves produced. The motive! 
which led to the rejection of the bill were doubtless pure; and although ft 
promised éclat of an adjustment, through Executive instrumentality, 
tempting to a new administration, may have had its weight, yet that this was < 
controlling consideration, it is far from my intention to affirm. 

In the prosecution of this inquiry, it is not necessary, I am sure, to urg 
upon this Senate the adoption of those measures only which are demande 
by the honor and interests of our country, and the exclusion from our co n 
cils of every consideration less worthy of our regard. The humiliating spec 
tacle of a foreign and adverse government, speculating upon the advan 
which it may derive from our dissensions, will, I fervently trust, never a 
be the reproach of the American People. In a Government like ours, founde 
upon freedom in thought and action, imposing no unnecessary restraints, ar 
calling into exercise the highest energies of the mind, occasional difference 
of opinion are not only to be expected, but to be desired. They rouse th 
sluggish to exertion, give increased energy to the most active intellect, excite 
a salutary vigilance over our public functionaries, and prevent that apath 
which has proved the ruin of Republics. Like the electric spark, they dispe 
from the political atmosphere the latent causes of disease and death. Bt 
these conflicting opinions should be confined to subjects which concern ou 
selves. In the collisions which may arise between the United States and 
foreign Power, it is our duty to present an- unbroken front; domestic diffe 
ences, if they tend to give encouragement to unjust pretensions, should be ex 
tinguished or deferred; and the cause of our pee eb i: must be consider 
as the cause of our country.” 


The views expressed in this speech in respect to the superiority of 
the claims of the country over those of party were the unalterable 
sentiments of my heart when the instructions to our Minister to 
England were prepared by me as Secretary of State and those 
which I acted to the best of my abilities. 

That the idea of the rejection of my nomination was first started 
by the friends of Mr. Calhoun is quite certain, whether° upon his 
suggestion or made his by adoption, I have no means of knowing. 
The U.S. Telegraph, the editor of which was his devoted friend and 
an incessant advocate for his elevation to the Presidency, of a date 
shortly after the nomination was announced, contained the following 
article: 


We make no pretension to prophesy, but, judging from the facets within om 
knowledge, we incline to the opinion that Mr. Van Buren’s nomination will Dé 


1 Register of Debates, Feb. 24, 1827, vol. III, 477 and 478. The Autobiography ¢ ] 
tains the injunction to “‘ fake in extracts” but the particular extracts are not design 


°MS. V, p. 35, 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 513 


ected by the Senate. Certain we are that it will be if the part he has acted 
Since he came to Washington is fully examined. His rejection, under such cir- 
‘cumstances, can excite no sympathy and will consign him to everlasting retire- 
‘ment. Indeed we have our doubts whether he will not yet affirm his own con- 
_demnation by declining the mission and thus escape the severe ordeal. 

This article has nothing of the characteristic style of the editor but 
resembles observations of Mr. Calhoun made on the floor of the 
‘Senate as related by Col. Benton. Mr. Calhoun’s successive hostile 
movements against me were uniformly without cause, always injuri- 
ous to his own advancement and on but one occasion,—the Presiden- 
tial nomination in 1844,—fatal to mine; and even then the very 
‘means to which he was driven to defeat my nomination, as will be 
more fully seen hereafter, extinguished the last hope for the realiza- 
tion of his own life-long aspirations. 

Our personal relations commenced under the most favourable 
auspices. He called on me within a few hours after my arrival 
at Washington as Senator in 1821, and soon made advances towards 
a familiar and friendly social intercourse, which I cordially recip- 
rocated. He was at that period of his life a very fascinating man 
and I enjoyed his society greatly. His residence was very near 
my lodgings and I spent many of my evenings at his house, where-t 
found many of his friends invited, as I was, to talk, and play whist. 
The Presidential election was more than two years off, but the gen- 
eral attention of politicians was already actively directed to the 
subject. He was an avowed candidate, and from the beginning, 
ppenly and earnestly against a continuance of the caucus system. 
In one of our conversations he went so far as to say that if a caucus 
was held and if it should offer the nomination to him, without con- 
ditions, he would feel obliged to decline its support, in that form. 
Upon this point we differed widely, nor was that the only difference 
in our political opinions. His views in regard to the construction 
of the Federal Constitution were latitudinarian in the extreme. Of 
these he gave us a striking and alarming illustration in his report 
as Secretary of War in favour of internal improvements by the 
general government, pursuant to the ground he had previously 
taken in Congress, as we have seen. He was out of patience with 
Virginia politics and with the never ceasing harping by her poli- 
ficians upon the “doctrines of ’98.” If I had selected my Presi- 
ential candidate from personal preferences I might have chosen 
- Calhoun, but the particular doctrines that were then so dis- 
ful to him were in perfect harmony with my opinions and 
They constituted the creed of a political party to which 


main to the last. I could not therefore go for him or with him 
 127483°—vor 2—20- 33 


514 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. = —— 


and gave the preference to Mr. Crawford with whom my intercor 
had been much more restricted. The rest is known. Mr. C 
was elected Vice President running on the same ticket with 
Adams and General Jackson respectively, both of whom, as well 
his own election, I opposed. Hard feelings arose during the 
vass but an open rupture was avoided. I had given him early 
frank notice of the course I intended to pursue, with my rea 
which more than excluded a personal exception, and social estran: ge- 
ment of a marked character had thus been prevented. We met in 
the Senate, he as its President and I on the floor. Old associatior 
were soon renewed and old feelings revived. In the same win 
that good and true gentleman Patroon Van Rensselaer and my: 
spent the holidays with him in Virginia at the residence of 
and Mrs. Fitzhugh, of Ravenswood, his particular friends, and 
most agreeable and hospitable hosts. Our time passed delightfully 
and the visit has ever been remembered by me as a green spot 3 
the pilgrimage of life. 

He gradually cut loose from whatever of political fraternity 
existed between himself and the supporters of the Adams’ 
ministration and we united heart and hand to promote the electioi 


¥ 
. 


of General Jackson. To reconcile past differences we agreed, iI 
advance of that election, to go at the next Presidential election fi 
a nomination by a national Convention. In pursuance of a prive 
understanding between us I prepared the letter to Mr. Ritchie 
favour of that step which appears in the correspondence and sub 
mitted it to him, and to his friend Mr. Ingham. They agreed toi 
without alteration and it was forwarded. I do not now remembe 
that I submitted it to any other person although it is probable thé 
I did. Before I left Washington we had an animated discussior 
at his house in Georgetown, concerning the press at Washington b 
which the opposition to the administration should be represen 
He was for continuing the Telegraph already in existence w 
the direction of Gen. Green and I was desirous to make an effor 
prevail on Mr. Ritchie to move to Washington. After I rea 
home I enclosed to him a letter from Mr. Cambreleng on the sam 
subject to which he made the following reply. I have no copy 6 
my letter which it will be seen by the answer embraced other sub 
jects. The omitted paragraphs of the letter relate to the quest 
in regard to the power of the Vice President to call to order. 
whole letter shows how cordial were the existing relations betwee 
us at that time. - 

WasuHineTon, 7th July, 1826. 


My Dear 8m, ’ 
Several causes have conduced to suspend my correspondence for the las 
fortnight, and among others the dangerous indisposition of my little son, wi 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 515. 


ck when you left us. He is still very low, and I fear his recovery is very 
ubtful. The physician recommends traveling, and we have concluded to go 
ut h, so soon as the state of his health will permit. Our residence in Carolina 
ar the mountains in a delightful and healthy climate. 

rejoice that your prospect in the State is so good. I am of the opinion, 
the administration here are at a loss how to act as it regards Mr. Clinton. 
, Clay will undoubtedly be opossed to his election. Rumour says that Mr. 
, ms is favourable, but I think it very doubtful. Great pains are undoubtedly 
taken to impress Mr. Clinton with the belief, that his only hope is to unite 
with Mr. Adams, to effect which Mr. Clay is represented to him to be 
utterly prostrated in publick opinion, and that the whole influence of Mr. 
ms will ultimately be thrown into his scale, unless he should take part 
nst him. I have no doubt but this is one of the points on which the 
ngs of Mr. Adams and Clay ° do not accord, but I am of the impression that 
former will be compelled to support Mr. Sanford, should he be nominated, 
t least not to take part against him. I entirely concur with you as to 
eourse. Our liberty and happiness depend on maintaining with inflexible 
mness, but with moderation and temper, republican grounds and republican 
ciples. In such a course, success cannot be doubted. Our people are 
mtially republican, and it would be strange indeed, if those who acted in 
fhe spirit of the system, and in accord with the temper of the community, 
saould fail. * * * 

a know not what to say on the subject to which Mr. C. refers. I do not 
doubt the importance of a general concurrence to support, by due encourage- 
t, an able paper here, and that young Mr. C. from representation is well 
ified. It is to be regretted that some united move had not been made last 
nter. In the absence of such, accident, as will almost always happen, goy- 
ned. A paper is already in existence, and it does seem to me that two on the 
me side must distract and excite jealousy. Each will have its partisans. To 
e a new arrangement on the existing establishment is not without difficulties. 
consent of the proprietor must be had. He has entered with zeal on his 
es, and ig sanguine of success. The circulation of his paper is said to 
rapidly increasing. On the whole, it seems to me, that nothing ought to 
done, but with general assent, which, in any event, cannot be obtained 
efore the next winter. 


Mame on the back of the letter might excite an impertinent curiosity. 
With great respect, 


Iam &e. &e. 
J. C. CALHOUN. 


Hon. M. VAN BUREN. Zt 

e Convention was held, and he and General Jackson were 
nated; the latter for President, and himself for Vice President. 
had numerous and strong opponents in Georgia, South Caro- 
,and other Southern States, who by the course we had respectively 
en in the preceding Presidential election had become my warm 
cal friends. It has been seen how earnestly they, with Mr. 
ford at their head, remonstrated with me against supporting 
Calhoun, but I did support him notwithstanding. The fol- 
ig letter will show the character of our relations at that period, 


° MS: V; p. 40. 


516 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


tective policy and what is here said is consistent with what he s 
to me at the previous session, and always subsequently during 
continuance of our friendly relations. 


PENDLETON, Sep’r, 1828.4, 

My Dear Sir. t 
I am delighted with the prospect in your State. It exceeds my most san 
guine anticipations, and is decisive of the great struggle. This favourable 


ment with which all of your measures have been taken. : 
I regret to learn that circumstances may compel you to permit your nam 
to be placed on the gubernatorial ticket. It is a position of great importance 
but in the present state of things, it seems to me desirable, that there shoul 
be as much experience and talents as possible in the service of the nation 
The coalition has so neglected and distracted all of our relations, foreign 
domestick, as to require the greatest skill & prudence to preserve peace 
harmony; yet, if your name be necessary to avoid the hazard of defea 
N. York, it will leave you no option. I sincerely regret that our old fri 
the Judge should put himself into so injurious and disagreeable a situa 
It indicates a want of political judgment, which really surprises me. I 
attribute it only to inattention to the events of the last four years. We ar 
so one-sided here, that I can have no information on the Presidential contest 
communicate. If we were more divided on that, there might, perhaps, be 
excitement on another question, in regard to which I observe much misre 
sentation in some of the northern papers. Deep as is the excitement, I 
I may truly say there is no class in favour of disunion. That I think is 
the danger. You know my sentiment from conversation. I see nothing { 
change it since the adjournment. Unless something can be done to put t 


broken forces of the coalition will endeavor to rally after their overthrow. — 
With sincere respect, 
Iam &e. &e. 


Hon. M. VAn BuREN. 


CHAPTER XXXvV. 


_ We succeeded in the election and I accepted the office of Secretary 
of State, an office, as will be seen by the preceding letter, Mr. Cal- 
houn desired me to occupy. He continued of that mind till the 
appointment was made so far as I know or have any reason to be- 
. It has already been seen that before the end of the second 
year of General Jackson’s administration a line of separation was 
ablished between us which seemed destined to be permanent. It 
hi also, I trust, been satisfactorily shown that drawing that line 
wa: his act, not mine, and that however sincere he may have been 
in the conclusions under which he acted, these were, nevertheless, 
altogether unfounded. I have, here and elsewhere, said perhaps all 
that is necessary in respect to the course I pursued towards Mr. Cal- 
houn and his friends whilst I was in General Jackson’s Cabinet. I 
am led, however, by my anxiety to be correctly understood upon 
hat point, to select for insertion here from the bundle of letters I 
e bearing upon it the following from myself to General Williams, 
of South Carolina, with his reply. In respectability, wealth and 
fiuence Gen. Williams ranked among the first citizens of his State; 
had supported Mr. Crawford and was, from an early period, an 
ponent of Mr. Calhoun. He had retired from our National Coun- 
before I entered them and I first made his acquaintance at his 
m house in 1828. The severity of his denunciations against Mr. 
oun would have induced me to withhold his letter if their hos- 
relations and unfavorable opinions of each other were less 
rious, neither do I give a place here without reluctance and 
ogy to his extravagant estimate of my services to General 

son; but I do not wish to garble his letter, the object for which 
e it being evident and, under the circumstances, an ample justi- 
ation of such use. 


oO 


(Confidential. ) ; 
s 2 WASHINGTON, Dec. 22, 1829. 
My Dear Str, 

[| received your kind letter with much pleasure, and am justly proud of the 
able opinion it expresses in regard to myself. I hope you have seen 
ough of me to be satisfied of my sincerity, ° when I assure you that there are 
men upon whose friendship I place a higher value than upon yours. In 


° MS. V, p. 45. 
517 


518 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 


regard to the principal subject of your letter, I can for the pre 
say that until Gen’. Jackson distinctly announces his wishes in resp 
the next election, it would be improper for one standing in the relatio 
him that I do to meddle in any form in the question of his successor. 
have therefore laid down for myself a rule upon that point consistent wi 
this opinion from which I have not yet departed & do not intend in fut 
to depart. 
Whenever circumstances are changed it will give me much pleasure 
communicate with you in the same spirit of frankness which distinguis 
your letter and forms an interesting feature in your character. In 
meantime I can with great confidence assure you that there is no disposition 
on the part of the President to exercise a partiality in whatever relates t 
South Carolina injurious to your friends. Upon this head you will be 
you have not already been) doubtless fully advised by such of them as 
here & have opportunities of judging. You will have seen by the pu 
papers that the one measure you proposed was not an open question w 
your letter was written. The other cannot be effected for reasons which | 
know will be satisfactory as well to yourself as to Judge Smith. At a 
proper time you shall know all that belongs to it. 
It will always give me sincere pleasure to hear from you. Remember 
kindly to Mrs. Williams & your son, and believe me to be 
Very sincerely your friend > 
M. Van Buren. 
Gen. D. R. WILLIAMS. , 


os 


To Martin VAN BuREN, Esq. a 
Society Hirt, 31st Jan. 1830. 
My DEAR SIR: : 
Your favor of the 22d of Dec. last reached me in due course of mail. I ha 
reflected much on its contents & cannot but express my deep regret that 
stances prescribe to you a course of conduct eminently calculated to 
your friends, in this quarter, entirely in the background. When I say 
wish distinctly to be understood as not objecting to the propriety of your 
lution, much less do I wish to attempt its revocation; that certainly yo 
best judge of; and it is no part of friendship to embarrass you with cou 
propositions. Perhaps it is insuperable, in a contest between intrigue & 
able ambition, that the last shall never occupy the vantage ground in all 
spects. While your determinations remain suspended, your arch opponen 
every muscle distended to its utmost to gain the object he looks to, & ther 
so far as South Carolina is concerned, it is not difficult to anticipate the ; 
Nor do I feel quite so easy about the impartiality of a great personage; a 
ing to my perception of the favors he has received, he owes you everything 
the other nothing. . 7 
Of this enough. My sole object in writing now is to acknowledge yours, 
say I am perfectly satisfied (if that be not too strong an expression) with 
you have been pleased to communicate; for in truth I hold I seareely hi 
right to an opinion on the subject, while your course necessarily preclud 
from all exertion in your behalf. i 
In the event of an altered state of things it will give me pleasure to sti u 
even against the prospect of defeat; for against the obliquities and terg 
tions of your opponent’s course I desire to be considered at perpetual war. — 
Accept the personal esteem of ae 
yours &e. - 
Davip R. WILLIAMS. 


= 
aa 


a 3 
~ 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 519 


_ There is no view that can be taken of Mr. Calhoun’s conduct in 
this affair to render it otherwise than highly censurable. If it be 
admitted that he sincerely believed that I had acted an unfriendly 
"or an unworthy part towards him—so much so as to give his previous 
hostility the character of justifiable retaliation, still the step I had 
“now taken should have caused him to pause. By my enemies gener- 
ally as well as by myself that step was regarded as placing me out 
_ of the line of competition for the Presidency, and I was about to 
Jeave the Country upon a mission which would, in all probability, 
but for the interference he contemplated, have ne me abroad for 
several years. Almost any other man would have seen in this con- 
juncture a sufficient reason for at least reviewing the grounds of past 
_ animosity and confirming himself of their truth and sufficiency. The 
‘simplest enquiry either of General Jackson or of myself, thro’ any 
respectable man, would have resulted in satisfying him that the 
EE ries and surmises upon which he acted were, one and all, fabulous 
and baseless; that I had never before that time taken a Seal hostile 
ep against: him, or any in which he was concerned that was not 
strictly in self- ae tiric, He took such a course five years later, con- 
vineed himself of his error and did all in his power to atone for it. 
‘The same result would have followed if he had taken it at the time 
of which I am speaking; by which also many harsh and unprofitable 
proceedings and much uneasiness of mind would have been saved.* 

But Mr. Calhoun was, it is to be feared, a most implacable man. 
T o persist in differing an him in pales was to encounter an 
enmity which would be satisfied with nothing less than the utter 
Byerthrow of its object; his political career, governed by this spirit 
enforcing the scriptural admonition that those who live by the 


aie aspirants for the superiority of position in their own ranks have always and 
where been the bane of political organizations, disturbing their peace and impairing 
efficiency, and will continue to be so as long as the nature of man remains what it 
These carry on their internecine quasi-warfare according to their respective tempera- 
él ts, the dispositions these engender, and the best judgment they can form in regard 
» the probable efficiency of their separate efforts. Whilst some are led by their disposi- 
fions to act only on the defensive, to watch the course of their rivals in all matters 
which they think designed for their detriment, and to content themselves with counter- 
acting the designs of their rivals by means the least calculated to disturb the Councils 
by impairing the harmony of their party, there are those who are never satisfied with- 
mt the total overthrow and destruction of their rivals, at whatever cost to their 
tical association that gratification is to be obtained. A review of the history and 
‘of Parties and factions will shew that it has been those who pursued the former 
» who refrained the most from suffering their personal feelings from being in- 
by their political rivalries and were most willing to leave the question of their 
idual advancement to the quiet and friendly arbitrament of their political associ- 
have in the end been the most successful. Mr. Calhoun has, it must be admitted, 
pied a prominent position in the latter class and hence the bitter feuds in his own 
tate and upon a larger scale between him and members of his own party with which 
Political life has been checkered from its very commencement and hence also its 
ous termination. Thus adding an additional point to the many afforded by the 
y of man of the truth of the moral, that those who live by the sword die by the 


520 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


sword shall perish by the sword. It is only on this theory, whicl 
is sustained by the character of his political wars in his own ant 
in the neighbouring state of Georgia, from beginning to end, 
the lamentable results of them, that I can explain proceedings 
otherwise inscrutable. The circumstantial annunciation of the de- 
sign to cause the rejection of my nomination—published es I 
Telegraph, and heralded thro’ the Country by the coalition press— 
was followed up by Mr. Calhoun to its consummation witha an 
disguised bitterness. The contemplated foundation and, on the 
part of those whose views and interests were represented by the 
Telegraph, the only foundation for the movement was the part ° 
had acted “since he (I) came to Washingten ”—that is to say, U 
the Eaton affair, 1 in the quarrel between President Jackson and Mr 
Calhoun, and in the disruption of the Cabinet. It was im respec 
to these matters that I was to be compelled to pass ne 
“severe ordeal.” The ground finally assumed by those who mac 
the movement effectual—that of my instructions in regard to th 
West India Trade negotiation—was probably not then dreamed 
by any one, certainly not by the Senators represented by the Tel 
graph. That was the result of different councils—the device of 2 an n 
other brain. The former did not at any time (it is fair to infer bal 
the published discussions) adopt it. [John] Holmes, of Mai 
then a reckless inebriate, altho’ I am happy to add that his hall it 
were subsequently amended, was at that time prepared to should 
the load of an attempt to sustain their charges against me, but. 1] 
the end, as has been seen, he shrank, ingloriously from i Ov » 
resolutions. Senator Hayne, from South Carolina, who may V 
be looked to as the index of their views, does not even allude | 
any other matter as a ground for my rejection than those which 
have stated as included in the notice given in the Telegraph. C 
the miserable generalities in which he avowed his belief (upe 
which belief he acted) and which I never read until recently, 
have only to say that there was not a particle of truth in a 
one of the inferences and surmises on which he based his 
so far as they were assumed to impeach my conduct,_thus stampe 
one and all of them, by Mr. Calhoun himself by the hono: i 
course he pursued ices better informed. ; 

Neither Mr. Clay, inclined by his nature to higher flights in» 
pursuit of his game, nor Mr. Webster, too sagacious to permit hin 
self to be drawn before the Country with no better defence of h 
course than could be found in those sources, were content wi 
the grounds of justification suggested by the Telegraph. The latte 
therefore, as will be seen hereafter, as soon as he had made up his 
mind to paone the proposed responsibility, set his evil genius, : 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 521 


ys prompt and active in the work of injuring a democrat, to de- 
se a foundation which might elevate the action of the Senate and 
more éclat to its decision. 
°This, under its promptings, he undertook to construct out of 
y instruetions to Mr. Mc Lane. The history of that and of all 
sevious negotiations in relation to the subject, tho’ spread over a 
‘series of years, may be given in a few words. Its adjustment 
the object of some six or seven negotiations between the two 
ernments, and of accumulated retaliatory legislation. Many of 
ost prominent statesmen of both Countries—for instance Can- 
and Huskisson, for England, and Rush, Gallatin, Adams and 
on our side, had taken prominent parts in it; Mr. Adams as 
ary and again as President, and Mr. Clay as Secretary of 
under him. In 1825 the British Parliament established by 
aw the terms upon which alone other Countries should be allowed 
» trade with her West Indian and other enumerated Colonies. 
ese they publicly offered to all nations who should accept of them 
in a given time. The British Government subsequently issued 
‘an Order in Council which averred that the United States had not 
li things conformed to the conditions but still tendered the trade 
question to them provided they did so conform by a named day; 
not then embraced, this Country to be excluded from it. The 
tions attendant upon the protracted negotiations had unfortu- 
y exhausted the patience of some of the gentlemen engaged in 
they had allowed their amor proprii to take offence and their 
to become soured, a weakness to which public men of all 
tries are occasionally subject. Thro’ some such cause our Gov- 
nt, with its eyes open to the consequences, suffered the time 
ire within which they were to comply with the English Act 
>arliament and Order in Council, and a total interdict of the 
e to take effect against the United States. Becoming satisfied 
e had committed an error, perhaps that he had given too loose 
in to his feelings, Mr. Adams sent Mr. Gallatin as special Min- 
to England with instructions, prepared by Mr. Clay under his 
ions, containing explanations and excuses, and finally author- 
‘the Minister to engage that the United States would yet do 
b was required by the Act of Parliament to entitle them to the 
and to conclude an arrangement for the disposition of the 
subject upon that basis. 
British ministry resented (for that is not too strong a term) 
it they chose to regard as the contumacy of our Government 
efusing what they had offered, and now in their turn declined, 
aress terms, allowing to us, their best and most convenient cus- 


° MS. V, p. 50. 


522 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


tomers, a trade to which they freely admitted all other nations. M 
Gallatin was then instructed to bring the subject again before th 
British Government and to renew our application to be admitte 
to the trade under the Act of Parliament, and as an inducemen 
to that Government he was authorized to accompany his appli 
tion with a concession never before offered, to wit: “that the Pre 
dent acquiesced in the decision taken by the British Governme 
that the Colonial trade shall be regulated by law ”—that being 
point we had before contested, preferring negotiation. His appli 
cation was a second time unceremoniously refused and he returnec 
from his fruitless mission. Not content with this Governor Bar 
bour was instructed to renew Mr. Gallatin’s proposition and it was 
again refused. Then followed diplomatic fulminations on our 
and finally a recommendation to Congress from President Adz 
in his Annual Message, to put an end to the trade by Act of : 
gress, reciprocating the British interdict.t In-respect to this Act 
altho’ not ranked among the friends of the Administration I suy 
perted, as has been seen, the President’s recommendation w 
grounds which have also been seen in part. This took place in 1 
and from that time until the coming in of Gen. Jackson’s Admin 
istration, the trade was lost to both Countries because their respec 
tive ministers altho’ agreed as to the terms upon which it shoul 
be established, could not be brought to act together in ca 
that agreement into effect. The first step taken after the ele 
of President Jackson was the passage of an Act by Congress, fra 
upon the principles contained in the instructions from Mr. 
to Mr. Gallatin under the previous Administration, setting f 
specifically the terms upon which we were willing to open our p 
to carry on the trade in question—which terms were those offere 
by the British Act of Parliament before referred to and the 
ceptance of which had been omitted on our part. The Act of Cor 
gress provided that whenever the President was satified that th 
Government of Great Britain was willing to extend the trad 
us upon those terms he should be authorized to put an end to 
interdict by a Proclamation to that effect. Of that Congress t 
Senators from New England, who figured so largely in the d 
ciations of what was subsequently done, were members and to 
Act they gave their assent—nay they were desirous of its pz 
as their immediate constituents were the largest sufferers from 
interdict. The duty of conducting a negotiation to obtain th 
sent of Great Britain contemplated by the Act not only dev 
upon the President under the Constitution but he was exp 
1The act to regulate the trade between the United States and the colonies of Gre 


Britain failed of passage Mar. 3, 1827, but a subsequent act for the same purpose, 
ing the acts of 1818, 1820 and 1823, was passed and approved May 29, 1830. 


_ Yi 
yA ¢ 
ad 4 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 523 


ed to institute one by Congress. President Jackson appointed 
Minister to that Court, Mr. McLane, and sent him out under 
tions thro’ which he hoped to satisfy the Government of 
Britain that it was neither just nor expedient in her longer 
st in denying to the United States commercial privileges 
she freely offered and extended to all the world. The desired 
sion was made and it was granted upon the conditions speci- 
the preparatory Act of Congress, passed May 29th, 1830, 
1 conditions, it has been seen, had received the concurrence 
parties in Congress. 
e news of Mr. McLane’s success reached the United States dur- 
session of Congress, the President’s Proclamation issued in 
ber and a new Order in Council in November, 1830—revoking 
he interdict and conceding the trade to the United States. The 
rade was secured to our Eastern brethren and to all our people, 
@ various extent of their interest in it; the propositions which 
en tendered to the previous Administration and declined, 
the latter had then urgently offered to accept and been thrice 
, Were now carried into effect by Great Britain and in con- 
im all respects with the Act of Congress which had been 
d by common consent to pave the way for a renewal of the 
and to regulate the terms upon which such renewal should 


; 
might President Jackson expect that he would receive thanks 
of denunciations especially from the representatives of our 
m people. But his reward and the reward of at least one of 
by whom he had been assisted was of a very different charac- 
e session of Congress continued for three months following 
thing was then said upon the subject. The agreement for the 
on had it is true, been entered into between the two gov- 
but it had not been executed. To that end, farther official 
necessary ; on the part of this Cera the proclama- 
f President Jackson to revoke our interdict, aaa a new Order 
mncil on the part of Great Britain to annul eae There was 
oom for “a slip between the cup and the lip,” and it would not 
mported with the well known sagacity of the “down Easters” 
hue and cry against a measure of the Government by which 
to be the greatest gainers, before its establishment had been 
yond the reach of contingencies. At the commencement 
st Session of Congress these steps had been taken, by both 
ments and everything had been done to show that the trade 
n upon the required terms was entirely safe, and not lable 
gered by agitation. The administration was besides gain- 
2 of credit for its success which its opponents desired to 


5294 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


ré 
o 


arrest, and what was worse than all, at least a share, perhaps a con- 
siderable share, of that credit might be awarded to the Secretary 
cf State whom they believed to be the General’s designated successor. 
The coast being at length cleared of danger to the interests of their 
constituents, these very representatives entered the field to disparage 
if possible the administration of President Jackson, and to destroy 
the political prospects of a hated aspirant by a desperate onslaught 
on the measure itself, and on all who had aided in securing it, save 
only the Minister who had gladly accepted and zealously sustained 
the negotiation with a full knowledge of the instructions under 
which he had acted, and, as will be seen, with® more than that. 
The Senators from Massachusetts, Webster and Sprague,’ and 
Holmes, of Maine, came forward as the champions for the fight. 
They charged that the trade was worth nothing, and that the char- 
acter of the country had been degraded by the instructions under 
which the Minister had acted. The support of the former imputa- 
tion was committed to Holmes and Sprague,—Webster at the proper 
time, assumed that of the latter. The two Houses were scarcely 
organised before Holmes offered his resolution of enquiry,’ preceded 
by a speech of condemnation, and, after occupying the attention of 
the Senate, off and on, with incoherent and reckless invectives agai 
the President and the late Secretary of State until he exhausted 
patience, then dropt the subject without pressing or even having de- 
signed to press a vote. Senator Sprague, the erring descendent of a 
honored democratic stock, though scarcely less bitter, was less gross 
and made a clumsy, laborious and certainly most inconclusive speech 
upon some proposition he had introduced in relation to the arran 
ment that had been effected, the object of which was to show that 
the trade was of no value. He, like his co-adjutor Holmes, occupie ed 
the time of the Senate for several days, and then, like him, quitted 
the subject. Webster made no formal speech either on Holmes’ or 
Sprague’s propositions, but briefly signified his full concurrence i 
their views. He persisted in treating the arrangement for securing 
the trade in the same way on several subsequent occasions, alway: 
seemingly intent upon finding an excuse for his course in respect 
my nomination through impeachments of the negotiation. To sho 
the partisan and purely factious character of these proceedings it i 
only necessary to say that this valuable trade has been carried on bj 
this country for nearly thirty years under that arrangement; and, a 
I know from competent sources, without essential alterations, and 
°MS. V, p. 55. 
1 Peleg Sprague, Senator from Maine, not Massachusetts. 
2Dec. 20, 1831. 


8 These speeches are reported in Congressional Debates, vol. VIII, pt. 1, pp. 19, 24, 
709, 710, 711, 740, 766 and 939. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 525 


nat Mr. Webster, though twice Secretary of State since that period 
as never even made an attempt to improve it. 
d A straight-forward man who had no sinister object to accomplish, 
it who thought he saw in the instructions under which the West 
ndia trade had been concluded features which would render it 
oper for him to vote for the confirmation of the nomination of 
author for another office, would have suspended his interfer- 
until the question came before him officially, and would then 
stated his reasons with manly candour and, having done so, 
d have founded upon them the act which, when he did perform 
professed to be a painful duty. More especially would he 
e done so when that author was a member of the same honorable 
rofession with himself, one who had been associated with him in 
he performance of Detar duties of high importance, who 
ad has a member with him of the same dignified body in which 
= was to perform that unwelcome duty, who was absent: in a for- 
n land when the information of the step he felt himself con- 
ned to take would reach him, in the presence of distinguished 
from all parts of the world, and who was withal a gentleman 
a his heart must aquit of having ever, in their long acquaint- 
and extensive intercourse in various capacities, treated him 
with incivility or unkindness of any description. But a course so 
scorous, so becoming to our past relations and so well calculated 
othe feeling which might be excited by his official action was 
to Mr. Webster’s taste. A noiseless, unostentatious performance 
s painful duties, confined to the closed-door sessions of the 
e—the usual course on such occasions,—was not “the enter- 
aent ” to which he invited himself. He desired, that his grati- 
on might be complete, to arouse the public interest and curiosity 
ect to the sacrifice he was about to make and, to this end, 
ed the occasion of a debate upon the resolution of his friend 
coadjutor, Holmes, in a few significant remarks, to fore- 
it and to summon the attention of his followers. Having 
this demonstration he forthwith, before the debate would ap- 
in the regular course, prepared an article for the National 
igencer giving a sketch of what he had said. I say he pre- 
it, because what he in that sketch is supposed to have said 
ently not taken from the notes of their reporter which. will 
nd in the volume. The article, as it appeared in the Inéelli- 
is in the following words: 


? 


British Negotiation—In the course of some incidental debate in the 
on Mr. Holmes’s resolution proposing to call upon the executive for cer- 
ther information concerning the West India trade, Mr. Webster made 


526 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIA 


remarks to the following effect, the bearing of which induces 
though the rest of the debate does not appear: 

From the close of the late war down to a very recent period, it a 
the object of the several administrations to secure a reciprocity not on 
the navigation, but to the commerce, the traffic in commodities of this 
with England. Since the recent period alluded to, that purpose 
abandoned, and an arrangement has been completed, in conformity 
structions given by the government here to the Minister at the court of 
James given, Sir, in terms and in a temper which may very properly t 
the subject of public examination and comment here; I say, Sir, of pu 
examination and comment. 


This was immediately transferred to Niles’ Register, published 
the adjoining city, where, to guard against its not being und 
stood, it received the following prefatory interpretation: * * 

Mr. Van Buren. It has been extensively believed that certain parts of 
instructions to Mr. McLane, on his mission to England, by Mr. Van B 
while Secretary of State, would become a subject of pointed discussion in 
Senate of the United States, which we now clearly understand will take 
from the following significant paragraph in the National Intelligenc 
yesterday.* ; 

From the Register it went the rounds of the opposition press, 
thus was the country, in a few days, forewarned of the great pr 
debate that was in due time to come off in the Senate of the Th 
States upon the character of my instructions to Mr. MecLar e, 
nomination as Minister to England being then before that i 
for confirmation. “4 

Now if anything were necessary, beyond the character and h 
of this Senator in such affairs and the circumstances by which 
transaction was surrounded to indicate the true source and natur 
this clap-trap annunciation, and to show that the objection to 
instructions thus ostentatiously heralded to the Country was a hol 
pretence, it would, I should think, in the estimation of all inger 
minds, be found in the fact that these instructions had been ve 
tarily communicated ° to Congress, published and laid upon the ta 
of the members for their information and for such consideratio 
they might think the subject required on the 3rd of January, 18 
within one week of a year before this notice in respect to the 
paraded before the public—that Congress remained in session” 
months after they were so laid before it, that they were publi 
in many of the public papers, (in Niles’ Register I know, and 
National Intelligencer, I believe), and that neither in Congress 
in the public prints, nor, as far as I know or believe, anyw 
else was a single word said about this degradation of our 
character, so loudly and, I may well say, so audaciously pu 


2 Niles’ Register, Dec. 24, 1831, 41, p. 297. 
° MS. V, p. 60. 
2 Jan. 15, 22 and 29, 1831, 39, pp. 363—68, 369-80, 390-96. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 527 
had been nominated as Minister to England and when it was 
expedient to set them up as a pretense for a predetermined 
tion of my nomination. 
steps were indeed taken by Congress in respect to the arrange- 
but it was because none were necessary. The President issued 
clamation on the express understanding that the arrangement 
precise conformity to the intention of Congress, as that was 
s forth in the Act of the month of May preceding. He approved 
the arrangement because it was so, and because the negotiation 
been fairly conducted and upon principles consistent with the 
nor and best interests of the Country. To enable Congress to 
d e for itself whether or not all this was so he, without solicitation, 
in all the papers necessary to the formation of its judgment and, 
head of them, these very instructions. If the arrangement was 
t upon pither point it was its duty to say so, and to arrest its 
on, as it was, in various ways in its power to do; but above 
it was, in the judgment of the members of the National Legis- 
or in the judgment of any portion of them, obtained through 
table concessions or explanations or rape abene! by which 
or of the Country was tarnished, it was their bounden duty 
eclare at the threshold and to call upon the President to pro- 
| farther in its execution. It was not allowable by any rule 
t or decency, that a body of men, such as these ought to have 
nd as the great portion of them were, should accept the wages 
Country’s degradation one year, and the next to promote 
er ends, should raise this false clamor against the transaction of 
they had thus availed themselves. 
t was the President to do? His predecessor had, for the time 
lost a great interest to the country, through the wiles of 
acy, by backing and filling in his positions in respect to it. 
who had elevated him to power had charged this very delin- 
ey, among others, upon him and laboured for his removal; they 
acceeded, and put another in his place to redress their rights in 
is and other respects—the Congress that was elected with the new 
ident asked him to seek the restoration of this trade upon the 
rhich the administration they had turned out had, tho’ agree- 
them, lost by their remissness. 
was Andrew Jackson, the frank old soldier, to approach 
Ministry with such an application ? Was he to speak 
with a double tongue, was he to mince his words, and, as 
ists often do, talk much without saying anything, or was 
alk to them as he did?—to say, with the discussions and 
ms that took place between you and my predecessors I 
haye as little to do as possible; we have had our differ- 


528 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


ences about them among ourselves—it is sufficient for you thi 
claim set up by them was by themselves withdrawn, and is ne 
vived by mé; you have a right to refuse what we ask if you t thi 
it against your interest to concede it, but you have no moral 
to refuse us privileges which you grant to other nations, and non 
at all to ground such refusal on past differences between you an 
my predecessors and I admonish you, therefore, respectfully k 
firmly, of the effect which such a course is calculated to exert upo 
the feelings and dispositions of the people of the United Ste 
That was, in substance, what he said, and it was the only lang 
he could consent to use. It is the language which all nations sim 
ilarly situated employ. It is the only way in which Countries i 
juriously affected by the quarrels of diplomatists can hope to rectif 
their errors. It is the straight forward honest way. An instan 
of a similar recourse is described in a letter from Mr. [Edw 
Everett, our Minister to England, to Mr. Webster himself, 
Secretary of State, as follows: 


Mr. EvereTt TO Mr. WEBSTER, 


LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, 

London, December 28th, 1 

I received on the 23rd instant a note from Lord Aberdeen, on the 4 
seizures, in reply to one addressed to him by Mr. Stevenson,* in the last h 
of his residence in London, and which, as it appears, did not reach Lord A 
deen’s hands till Mr. Stevenson had left London. As some time must ola] 
before I could give a detailed answer to this communication, I thouzkell t 
at once to acknowledge its receipt, to express my satisfaction at its dispassion 
tone, and to announce the purpose of replying to it at some future period. 4 
President, I think, will be struck with the marked change in the tone 0 
present ministry, as manifested in this note and a former ove addre 
Lord Aberdeen to Mr. Stevenson, contrasted with the last communication ir 
Lord Palmerston on the same subject. The difference is particularly appai 
in Lord Aberdeen’s letter to me of the 20th inst. Not only is the cla im 
Great Britain relative to the right of detaining suspicious vessels stated il 
far less exceptionable manner than it had been done by Lord ene 
Lord Aberdeen expressly declines being responsible for the language used t 
predecessor. * * * a 


A question had been long under discussion between the 
Government and that of the United States, a very important | 
tion which might any day disturb the peace of the two countri 
involving the-right of search, recently so satisfactorily dispo 
Lord Palmerston, Minister of foreign affairs in the adminish 
of Lord Melbourne, had claimed that right in his correspon 
with Mr. Stevenson. Under a change of Ministry, in both co 
tries, that correspondence was continued, and Lord Aberdeen, o 
pied the same position under the administration of Sir Rob 


1 Andrew Stevenson. 


_ AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 529 


wh 1,” we are told, “a great change had occurred in the 
he English Ministry.” Lord Aberdeen had, in the language 
E rett, “not only stated the claim of Great Britain rela- 
e right of detaining suspicious vessels in a far less ex- 
ble manner than that in which it had been asserted by Lord 
m, but expressly declined being responsible for the lan- 
d by his predecessor.” Yn our case there had been ex- 
rences in regard to the claim® at one time set up by 
sson’s predecessor upon the subject in dispute; this 
gh subsequently withdrawn, had with its attendant cir- 
‘broken off the negotiation. President Jackson not re- 
claim that had been set up and waived by Mr. Adams, 
himself the selected exponent of different views on the 
se for whom he acted, refused in the negotiation he in- 
l, ta = held responsible for what had been done by his pred- 
"Where | is the difference between the two cases? None can 
Tt is not to be doubted that the diplomatic archives of 
are full of similar proceedings. 
ster saw nothing extraordinary in the conduct of Lord 
‘nor would the instructions to Mr. McLane have ever 
rded in a different light if their author, subsequently to 
x laid before Congress, had not been nominated Minister 


2arks have already been extended far beyond what was at 
1, but I trust feeling minds will excuse me for such a result 
y reflect how deeply a review of such scenes must excite 
— character and public career they were intended to 
l effect. A few more observations and the subject will be 


s one feature in those transactions never heretofore 
the public which, though it neither made the instructions 
— nor is entitled to weight in reviewing the decision 
mate, because that body did not know of it, may perhaps 
a : fies possess sufficient interest to justify a brief notice. Mr. 

ne was not directed but permitted, in his discretion, to present 
British Ministry the views of the subject, to which objections 
kde. This was done upon his own suggestion. I re- 
as soon as he was appointed, to obtain for me statistical 
from practical men engaged in the trade and, at the 
informed him that if he was enabled by the acquaintance 
le with the subject whilst in Congress, where it was often 
to make any suggestions in regard to his instructions which 


°MS. V, p 65. 


530 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


he thought might be useful, they would be received with plea 
He obtained the information I desired and in the letter comm 
cating it he made suggestions of the character I have named 
most prominent of which was the following: 


Now it seems to me clear, that after the concessions already made by 
government, and in the situation in which the late Administration has 
this subject, we are precluded from opening the negotiations upon any ba 
assumed prior to 1826; and that the only object left is to acquire a partici 
tion in this trade according to the terms and to the extent proposed by 7] 
British act of 1825. The probability of obtaining this must depend upoi 
the temper and interest of the British Government; upon their dome 
condition, the state of affairs in Hurope, and the effect of their Colonial po 
upon their own Islands. And these are obviously to be used according to ci 
cumstances not now to be clearly foreseen. * * * 

I incline to the opinion, therefore, that the best mode of reviving the n 
tiation on this point will be delicately, but with candour and firmness 
gradually disconnect the present Administration of the American Governm en 
from the errors and pretensions of the past; to disconnect the past from th 
interests and temper of the American People; to show that the policy purs 
by the late executive was in opposition to the great mass of the Amer 
People, who, having applied the only constitutional corrective in this co 
have selected an Administration with better views, and a different p 
hat the present appeal to the liberality and justice of Great Britain, 
on behalf of the People, that Government will find its interest in this 
cession, in encouraging this effort, in availing itself of this crisis, to sub 
inveterate prejudices, and, by a reasonably conciliating temper, lay the fo 
tion of future harmony in our relations, and of just reciprocity in our ir 

If these considerations fail, especially if judiciously pressed, as occ s 
may warrant, in connection with the details of the whole subject, I see n 
other course open * * * ‘This Government will have performed its dut 
and will be well sustained by the People.t 


5 CD. 


This suggestion was carried out by the instruction in the fob 
lowing words: 


If the omission of this Government to accept of the terms proposed, wh 
heretofore offered, be urged as an objection to their adoption now, it wi 1] 
your duty to make the British Government sensible of the injustice and inex] 
diency of such a course. 

The opportunities which you have derived from a participation in our 
councils, as well as other sources of information, will enable you to speak 
confidence (as far as you may deem it proper and useful so to do) of the re 
tive parts taken by those to whom the administration of this Government is 1 
committed, in relation to the course heretofore pursued upon the subject 0 
colonial trade. Their views upon that point have been submitted to the p 
of the United States; and the counsels by which your conduct is now dir 
are the result of the judgment expressed by the only earthly tribunal to y 
the late administration was amenable for its acts. It should be sufficient 
the claims set up by them, and which caused the interruption of the tra 
question have been explicitly abandoned by those who first asserted them 
are not revived by their successors. If Great Britain deems it adverse t 
interests to allow us to participate in the trade with her colonies, and 


*McLane to Van Buren, June 11, 1829, in the Van Buren Papers. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 531 


othing in the extension of it to others to induce her to apply the same rule to 
us, she will, we hope, be sensible of the propriety of placing her refusal on those 
grounds. To set up the acts of the late administration as the cause of forfeiture 
of privileges which would otherwise be extended to the people of the United 
States, would, under existing circumstances, be unjust in itself and could not fail 
to excite their deepest sensibility. The tone of feeling which a course so unwise 
and untenable is calculated to produce would doubtless be greatly aggravated by 
the consciousness that Great Britain has, by order in Council, opened her colonial 
ports to Russia and France, notwithstanding a similar omission on their part to 
accept the terms offered by the act of July, 1825. 
You cannot press this view of the subject too earnestly upon the consideration 
of the British Ministry. It has bearings and relations that reach beyond the 
immediate question under discussion.* 


It is due to the Senate to say that they were ignorant of this 
circumstance when they unanimously confirmed the nomination of 
Mr. McLane for the office of Secretary of the Treasury. They only 
sew that he had undertaken the duties assigned to him and had 
mtered upon their performance with a full knowledge of the in- 
‘stiuctions which they condemned me for writing. But it is also 
due to truth to say that they would not, in all probability, have 
acted differently if their information had embraced the fact I 
mention. The motives that prevailed in the vote for my rejection, 
‘Motives which had in reality nothing to do with the instructions, 
‘did not reach Mr. McLane, and if they had, his nomination for the 
place of Secretary would still have been confirmed. The great lever 
¥y which the action of the party in opposition to President Jack- 


ee 


son’s administration was moved as well as the fundamental element 
of their strength, was the power of the Bank of the United States. 
‘They were-then, several years in advance of the expiration of its 
charter, about to pass a Bill for its extension; against the passage 
of that bill they expected the President’s Veto, and the measure and 
.. veto were designed to be the great issues upon which the Presi- 
dential election, which was to be held before the close of that year, 
yas to be contested. Among Mr. McLane’s first acts, after entering 
m the duties of the office of Secretary of the Treasury, which 
)was long before the Senate acted upon his nomination, was the 
ansmission to the Senate of his official report upon the finances, in 
hich he discussed at length and with great formality, the question 
to the expediency of rechartering the existing Bank of the United 
ates, and earnestly recommended its recharter—a measure of 
hich the President was known to disapprove, and against the con- 
mation of which, he intended to interpose and did interpose his 
. The party opposed to General Jackson’s Administration, and 


ich possessed so many votes in the Senate, might, under such 


) “| nstructions to McLean, July 20, 1829. The part quoted is printed in Niles’ Register, 
9, P. 367. Van Buren’s autograph notes of the instructions are in the Van Buren Papers, 


532 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


circumstances, as well have laid down their arms as to have re 
jected Mr. McLane’s nomination after the reception by Cohen 
and publication of that document. They could not do so with safety 
to their own interests and they would not have desired to do so - 
they could. 4 
But the course pursued against me i those who governed the 
action of the Senate, harsh and vindictive as it must be admitted 
to have been, was marked by a feature, in the manner of carrying 
out their design, especially offensive to ie moral sense of the com- 
munity. I allude to the arrangement previously entered into be- 
tween them that the vote of the body should be made a tie and he 
final question consequently be decided by the casting vote of the 
Vice President, so that each section of the opposition,—_the Clayites 
Calhounites, and the remnant of old federalists who acted with 
Venter “nadia each bear their full proportion of responsibilit; 
for the act. The extent to which the gratification of the mor 
Say excited feelings of Mr. Calhoun and his friends entered 
° into the inducements for its commission, and the smallness, as 
well in weight as number, of their force on the floor of the Senate 
gave, it must be admitted, considerable plausibility to the arrange- 
ment—regarding the ale proceeding as a question of politic: 
loss and gain, a consideration distinctly avowed in the Telegrapi 
note and never for a moment lost sight of by Mr. Webster. Of 
the fact that such a stipulation was exacted and enforced there i 
no room for doubt. The Globe charged it distinctly at the ti me 
and I am informed by those in whom I have full confidence, an¢ 
who were in the way of knowing, that neither the Senators ther m- 
selves nor their supporters ever affected to deny the arrangemen 
Mr. F. P. Blair, in this month of April, 1859, though now actin 
politically with the followers of Clay and Webster and having i 
relations with me other than those of personal friendship and © 
ciprocal respect, writes me upon the subject as follows, “I remem 
ber well that it (the arrangement to make the tie) was so thal 
oughly understood on all sides in the Senate as to be common talk,”* 
and assigns many grounds for his statement which I do not 
it worth while to repeat here. The existence of such an agreeme 
moreover follows irresistibly from the manner in which the vo 
was given and the tie produced. Never was there perhaps a severe 
scrutiny or a more active drill of any public body, or one mac 
under more skillful trainers, or an occasion on which more m on 
bers, in proportion to the number of those engaged, were notorious 
persuaded to vote against their inclinations. 


, 


SUMS 2 nVe Dene 1 April 25, 1859, in the Van Buren Papers, 


~ AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 5S) 


_ When the vote was taken Prentiss of Vermont and Bibb of Ken- 
ucky were the only Senators absent. Prentiss was an upright and 
air minded man but an earnest old federalist, and therefore some- 
what prejudiced against me, but as was well understood, he dis- 
iked the work cut out for the Senate. Still, if he had been pres- 
ent, he would have, in all probability voted against the nomination; 
at all events, he would have given timely notice of what he intended 
0 do. But being really an invalid to an extent which soon car- 
ried him to his grave, he kept his bed. 

_ Bibb, whose vote either way would have defeated the arrange- 
ment, was a sort of Jackson-Clay-Calhoun Democrat, who aimed 
at remaining upon friendly terms with all three; a difficult posi- 
tion, but one which he succeeded in occupying as to the two latter 
gentlemen. Although in fact decidedly hostile to me, either from 
the promptings of his own heart, or made so thro’ the influence 
f others, my friends had been led to expect his support on this 
ecasion. The illness of Mr. Prentiss afforded him an opportunity 
0 oblige his friends by his absence and at the same time to avoid 
rupture with General Jackson, thro’ whose influence he had been 
ected to the Senate. He was in the Capitol when the vote was 
en; he claims to have been in the Supreme Court Room. Mr. 
ir informed me, on my return, that he was in the library; the 
mly difference being that the latter was on the same floor with 
nd the former directly under the Senate Chamber. His absence 
as beyond doubt intentional and the reason for it is seen in the 
angement of which I am speaking. Col. Benton, who was a 
mber of the Senate and present at this time, treats the fact 
t the two successive ties were intentional, and a fulfillment of 
requirement of the other leaders that Mr. Calhoun’s vote should 
ear on the record, was established. He mentions also that Mr. 
houn said to a Senator, in his hearing and speaking of me: “It 
wld kill him, Sir! kill him dead! He will never kick, Sir! never 
k!” A striking counterpart of the original article in the Jele- 
ph, already quoted.t Such contrivances are never thought of 
public men in the dignified discharge of public duties, and in 
performance of actions of whose merits they are conscious. In- 
id of seeking to lessen individual responsibility by dividing it 
h others each is desirous of being foremost in the good work. 
manner in which this affair was gotten up and pushed through, 
m the contrary, implied an acknowledgment that the act was felt 
an unjustifiable one by the actors themselves. For the ac- 
plishment of their object they entered, I will not say into a con- 
y, for the act was not an illegal one, but into a combination 


1See pp. 512-513. 


5384 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. ai 


to put down a political opponent by means which involved muc 
of the criminality and all of the immorality of a conspiracy. 
The whole proceeding was one with which such men as Cle 
and Calhoun ought never to have been connected. They doubtles 
regarded the matter in that light as soon as the phrensy into whie 
they had been thrown by President Jackson’s unexpected succes 
in the administration of public affairs, had abated and commence 
the work of atonement, as soon, perhaps, as circumstances woul 
admit of. Mr. Calhoun, as has been seen, before the whole countr 
made the amende. honorable by extending the hand of friendshi 
to me, by supporting my administration to its close and by causiz 
the vote of his State to be thrown in favour of my reelection. 
The relative political positions of Mr. Clay and myself were suc 
that a similar course was not open to him. But from the peri 
of which I am now writing to the day of his death, as far as 
know or have reason to believe, he invariably spoke of my pe 
character and conduct with respect and kindness. When I tra 
through the southern and western States, in 1842, he sent to sever 
points pressing invitations to me to visit Ashland which I acceptec 
spending a very agreeable week in his family circle. He subs 
quently at my request came to Lindenwald. I invited his politic 
friends within my reach to call upon him at my house, which th 
did in great numbers—he passed several days with me most plea a 
antly and sociably; we talked over old scenes without reservayg 
sons escorted him to Albany and I went with him though sufferi 
from gout, as far as the railroad station, where we parted ne} 
to see each other again. ‘_ 
After he had re-established friendly relations with his oan u 
devoted friends, Francis P. Blair and his very intelligent and & 
timable wife, he frequently and in the warmest terms, expressed 
to the former the personal° respect and regard he entertained for 
me, referred to this very matter of the rejection of my nominatic 
and, whilst avowing the sincerity of the views he then took of 
still earnestly expressed his regret that the affair had ever occurred. 
Mr. Blair communicated these observations to me and I re 
cated the feelings they manifested with all my heart. Col. B 
was then writing his Thirty Years in the Senate and he sent 
occasionally the ‘sheets of the first volume; among them tonal 
taining his account of Mr. Clay’s pas in the election 0: 
Adams, which had been so violently assailed, and also of the é 
with Randolph. Pleased with the liberality vimana by the Cole 
towards a personal and political enemy, I expressed my satisfactio1 
in a complimentary letter to him, and convinced that Mr. Clay would 


° MS. V, p. 75. 


_ AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 535 


ss 2 d than surprised by being made aware of the 
be views which one whom be ranked among his bitterest 
id to publish of pomts upon which his sensibilities had 
Thaps more deeply excited than im respect to any other 
es im his public life, I sent the eubstance of them to Mr. 
a request that he should embrace some suitable occasion. 
me Mr. Clay’s last illness) to communicate them He 
ned me of the manner in which the communication 
ideation whic was made were 


d striking. 
ir having reosived my leter and baring taken it with bi 
of imparting its contents. Mr. Clay introduced the 
ifthe book the Colonel was preparing, and said he presumed 
be filled with aggravated displays of the violent passions the 
@ extubited im his political course. These remark: gave 
hi oppoctunity ts exccute his commision, and 
x“ say how well he availed himself of it Mr. Clay was 
— ed. thanked us both. and <aid the information he had 
should for the short period he had yet to live, be permitted 
= influence to which it was so well entitled over what 
to say of Colonel Benton I will add that my letter 
expressive of my sense of the credit to which this 
cried hies-won read by kim acveral years after 
Ps death during his canvas forthe Howse of Repreents 
os s of his district where Mr. Clay’s friends were very 
Ghieet giving the name of the writer, and through it 
SN cies, and probably his election. Farther com- 


Blair, down to within a few days of his death* 

haters sensibilities were never, I presume, very deeply 
pd by the consciousness of the injustice be had done to a 
i opponent. He did indeed, as will hereafter be seen. ex- 
ieee epee thar onbiject- of his course towards 
my return from England. and subsequently took a step in 
§ pointed out by better and jusier feelmgs which he 
low up having been prevented, I fear, by one of those 
p entanglements by which his entire political career 
' the improved relations that had sprung up be 
ee oe Mr Calhoun and myself he seemed to think 
mehoration in the character of his personal miercourse 
rah ‘In this state of mind he called upon me whilst 
h im New York, evinced great cordiality and expressed 
re that I chould revisit Boston I told him that my 


= aeaim records this occurrence meer ihe end of Chapter SLIV- 


Ap 


536 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. = 


friend, Mr. Paulding, and myself were meditating a visit to | 
modore Jack Nicholson who was then in command of the Bo 
Navy-yard and to whom we were both warmly attached, and 
promised to appraise him of our arrival. He insisted that I shoul 
not give myself that trouble as he would be certain to know of m 
- being in the City and would immediately find where I was and eall 
upon me. We went to Boston, spent a week there, dined with sey- 
eral of his friends; our visit was noticed in the papers; we heard 
several times of Mr. Webster being in the city, but saw nothing 
of him. I was not a little puzzled by his conduct, canvassed its 
probable cause with Paulding, and, confident that he would be 
found to have had a shrewd motive for his non-appearance, I 
prepared also I feel bound to say, to find it one of a sinister ek 
acter. The mystery was speedily solved. Soon after my ret 
home, whilst fishing in a pond a mile or two from my house, 
friend, Mr. B. F. Butler and his wife drove near the bank where 
I was sitting and called me to their carriage. As I approached I 
observed that they were both much excited and I had no sooner 
reached them than Mrs. Butler asked me whether I had seen M 
kenzie’s book? On receiving my reply in the negative, they p 
posed that I should go with them to my house which I did, 
on our way they informed me briefly that that somewhat notori 
person had published a book made up of private and confiden 
letters to Jesse Hoyt, from myself and from some hundred of 
political and personal friends, in which number they themse 
were prominently introduced.t_ The circumstances of the case ¥ 
in substance these. I removed Hoyt from the office of Colle 
of New York for reasons to be hereafter spoken of and appoin 
Mr. John J. Morgan in his place. The latter held the office a 1 
years, when he was removed by President Harrison, who “Ppa a 
the late Edward Curtis Esq., a gentleman whom Mr. Clay was d 
the habit of describing as “ Webster’s man, Curtis.” 
In forming the opinion conveyed by this expression Mr. Clay mi: 
a great mistake. If I had been asked to select an individual who 
deemed best adapted to the management of a political int 
which was not out of the reach of a man in his position, I would 
named Edward Curtis, and I need not say that among the qua 
tions of such an agent I would have deemed it indispensable 
[he] should not have been anybody’s man. Mr. Webster did 
controu] Curtis’s action one jot or tittle farther than he thou 
for his interest to permit him to do so, but if I did not err egregi 
in respect to the character of the relations that existed between 


1 McKenzie published The Lives and Opinions of Benj’n Franklin Butler, and 
Hoyt in 1845 and The Life and Times of Martin Van Buren, in 1846. The latt 
tained practically the same letters and correspondence as the 1845 publication. 


-s AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 537 


_he exerted -a personal influence over Mr. Webster in respect to most 
things but rarely if ever equalled between gentlemen in their relative 
positions. Curtis possessed a facility of making himself thoroughly 
acquainted with the character and disposition of those with whom 
‘he had been or was desirous to be brought in contact and in devising 
_ the ways by which they could be influenced, with degrees of gentle- 
ness and perseverance in their application, hich there was nothing 
in the nature and disposition of Mr. Webster to enable him to with- 
stand. Of the ends to which that influence was exerted and the 
objects that were accomplished by it I do not design to speak. But if 
- the reader desires a practical illustration of Mr. Curtis’s skill in the 
management of intricate and difficult affairs I recommend him to a 
careful perusal of the papers in the celebrated Gardner fraud upon 
the Government and particularly to Mr. Curtis’s correspondence with 
the officer who had that matter in charge, without attempting to ex- 
plain or reconcile the results of his interference, the first of which 
was that he pocketed $40,000 of the money gained by the fraud, but 
how applied God only knows, but I doubt not generously, but with- 
- held from the Government to the last; and the second that he appears 
on the record from an early period, certainly full as soon as there was 
the slightest reason in any quarter to apprehend an ultimate blow up, 
as an active and discreet adviser of the officer of the Government, 
doing apparently what he could to guard the Government against 
loss and put them in the best way to aid them in the performance of 
their duties, fairly entitling himself to be regarded as a disinterested 
and active friend to the public interest. 
_ Retaining an indistinct recollection of the contents of a letter 
from Mr. Weed of Albany, an exceedingly competent judge of the 
‘character of Curtis, addressed to General Peter B. Porter, as the 
personal friend of Mr. Clay, designed to remove his opposition to 
‘the appointment of Mr. Curtis, in which the view I here take of 
Curtis’s character and the character of his relations with Mr. Web- 
_ ster were sustained, I have referred to Mr. Clay’s “ Private Cor- 
‘respondence” and have extracted from [there] what follows: 
I met him for the last time but a short period before his death, 
in Broadway in New York. The marks of approaching dissolution 
were stamped upon his countenance and I do myself but justice 
‘in saying that I was much affected by his appearance. I had not 
seen him for several years; he was evidently happy to have met 
me, and evinced so plainly a desire to prolong the interview by 


- 1Van Buren’s intention of using these extracts was not carried out. The letter re- 
red to will be found on p. 448 of The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, edited 
‘alvin Colton (N. Y., 1856) and is a letter from Porter to Clay, dated Jan. 28, 1841, 
ecting Weed’s letter on the contemplated appointment of Curtis as Collector of Cus- 
oe S at New York, in which Porter discusses Curtis’ characteristics and political 
: me anoeuvers. 


538 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 


changing his course and accompanying me a short distance |the] — 
way I was going as to induce me to walk up and down the street 
with him for a short time. The ease and apparent sincerity of his 
manner, as well as the prudent advice he gave me in respect to a 
matter of business I brought to his notice, were so much in har- 
mony with the opinion I had always entertained of his great good 
sense [that they] constituted the subject of my reflections for some 
time, during which I could not help felicitating myself that I could 
succeed as far as I felt that I had in subduing my prejudice against — 
a man whom I always thought had through means certainly not 
unexceptional made his exertions for my defeat in 1840 more effec- 
tive than any other individual in his situation and whom I suspected 
of having designed me much harm in the transaction to which I 
am about to refer but on whom the hand of death was now so visible. 

After this brief notice of a truly remarkable man I proceed with 
my account of the transaction I purpose to relate. . 

William L. McKenzie, of Canadian memory, was arrested, tried 
and condemned for a violation of our neutrality laws in 1839, the 
period of the Canada disturbances, and was sentenced to imprison- 
ment for eighteen months. He applied to me to pardon him and 
his application was earnestly sustained by a large number of my 
political friends as well as by others, residents of Northern New 
York, Ohio, Vermont and other States. There being no pretense 
that he was innocent of the charge and having reason to apprehend 
that his pardon would obstruct pending negotiations between us” 
and Great Britain, I refused to interfere in the matter until after 
he had been in confinement for nearly two thirds of the time for 
which he was sentenced, when I remitted the residue of the term. 
He entertained a high opinion of his own political importance and 
was rendered very implacable by the course I had felt it my duty 
to take in the matter and in various ways announced his intention 
to seek revenge. I heard no more of him until I learned that the 
new collector, Mr. Curtis, had given him a place in the Custom 
House. There he singularly enough soon found materials which 
he and his employers thought were sufficient to cause great annoy- 
ance to my friends and myself. ° Collector Hoyt who had been an | 
active politician and busy correspondent had left in an upper room 
of the Custom House an old trunk containing his private letters — 
and notes—the accumulations of many years—some of them cer- 
tainly ofa free, thoughtless and indiscreet, though few, if any, — 
of a very culpable character. This trunk was discovered by 0 or 
pointed out to McKenzie and rifled of its contents which were pub- 
lished by him in pamphlet form. To prevent the suspicion that the — 


°MS. V, p. 80. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 539 


new Collector had connived at the transaction the book (for the 
letters made a sizable volume) though printed in New York, as was 
ascertained from an examination and comparison of the [make-up] 
was published at Boston, and was ready to be put in circulation at 
the time of my visit to that city, although not issued until after my 
departure. Of these procedings, at least from the time the pamph- 
let was sent to Boston, Mr. Webster was, beyond all doubt, fully 
informed. Among the letters were several written by myself and 
some of them of a confidential character, and he probably thought 
_ that the attentions he had designed to show me, if coincident with 
a publication of confidential letters of a political and personal bear- 
ing which was expected seriously to annoy and injure me, would 
be both awkward and impolitic. We never met again. That this 
was the explanation of his otherwise unaccountable conduct I. have 
never for a moment doubted. : 
The pitiful enterprise after all turned out very differently from 
_ what was anticipated. My letters had been thrown before the pub- 
lie without careful consideration of the effect they might produce, 
and under the impression, natural to the sort of persons who would 
_ be concerned in such a transaction, that because they were private 
they must be unworthy. The general sentiment elicited by their 
publication, on the part of both my political opponents and friends, 
_ was that I could well have afforded to defray the expenses of bring- 
_ ing out in such a form, my portion of the correspondence. 
But the subject of the rejection of my nomination has spun itself 
- out to a far greater length than will I fear be deemed excusable. 
Still I cannot dismiss it without a word of acknowledgment of the 
fearlessness, promptitude and warm eloquence with which my per- 
sonal character and official conduct were defended in the Senate by 
_ friends; especially is this acknowledgment due to the memory of my 
_ lamented friend Forsyth—from whose speech on the occasion, I make 
the following extract, the encomiastic tone of which, altho’ he was 
one of those noblemen who would not flatter the gods for their 
" powers, is certainly raised far above my deserts or pretensions by the 
chivalric zeal of the speaker in the cause of an absent friend, but 
upon which I may be pardoned for placing the highest value because 
it grapples boldly with a charge perhaps more fanatically urged 
against me than against any other public man in the country—of 
course in my estimation without any justice—I mean the vague 
imputation of a capacity and a disposition for political intrigue. 


a i i i 


ot 


—_, 
qos 


But this Mission to England was not sought by Mr. Van Buren; his friends 
‘Imow that it was pressed on him by the President; and that it was reluctantly 
_ accepted at the earnest solicitations of friends who were satisfied it would pro- 
: mote his own reputation, and redound to the honor and welfare of the nation. 
1a 


Din 


a 


540 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. — 


I will not follow, further, the Senator’s lead. Long known to me asa poli 
and as a man, acting together in the hour of political adversity, when we ha 
lost all but our honor—a witness of his movements when elevated to power ie 
and in the possession of the confidence of the Chief Magistrate, and of the great 
majority of the people, I have never witnessed aught in Mr. Van Buren which | 
requires concealment, palliation, or coloring—never anything to lessen his 
character as a patriot and as a man—nothing which he might not desire to 
see exposed to the scrutiny of every member of this body with the calm confi 
dence of unsullied integrity. He is called an artful man—a giant of artifice—a 
wily magician. From whom does he receive these opprobrious names? From 
open enemies and pretended friends. In the midst of all the charges that have 
been brought against him, in shapes more varying than those of Proteus, and 
thick as the autumnal leaves that strew the vale of Vallambrosa, where is the 
false friend or malignant enemy that has fixed upon him one dishonorable or 
degrading act? If innocent of artifice, if governed by a high sense of honor, 
and regulating his conduct by elevated principles, this is not wonderful, but it 
the result of skill, of the ars celare artem, he must be more cunning than the 
devil himself to have thus avoided the snares of enemies and the rece ‘'v 
of pretended friends. ! 

It is not possible, Sir, that he should have escaped, had he been otherwi 
than pure. Those ignorant of his unrivalled knowledge of human character, | 
power of penetrating into the designs and defeating the purposes of his 
versaries, seeing his rapid advance to public honors and popular confidenc e; 
impute to art what is a natural result of those simple causes. Wxtraordinary 
talent, untiring industry, incessant vigilance, the happiest temper, which 
success cannot corrupt nor disappointment sour; these are-the sources of 
unexampled success, the magic arts—the artifices of intrigue, to which only 
has resorted in his eventful life. Those who envy his success may learn 
dom from his example.* 


1Tn the debate in Executive session, Jan. 24—25, 1832. Register of Debates, 8, pt. 1, 
1347, 


CHAPTER XXXVI. 


- When I left for England in August 1831, Mr. Calhoun had just 
committed himself, in a long and laboured exposé, to the doctrine 
of nullification and his political friends were striving, might and 
main, to work the south in general, and South Carolina in particular, 
‘Into a condition sufficiently phrenzied to induce a resort to such a 
emedy for the redress of undoubted and in my judgment flagrant 
srievances. When I returned in July, 1832, at the close of the first 
‘session of the Congress, I found a bill for the relief of those griev- 
ances under discussion and on the point of being decided. They 
had succeeded by active and persevering agitation in creating great 
‘excitement in South Carolina on the subject, and they had, as it 
seemed to me, more from policy than from any expectation of re- 
dress, deferred the commission of overt acts until another session of 
Congress should have intervened. Gen. Jackson expressed a wish 
that I would do what I could with my friends in Congress to pro- 
mote a satisfactory adjustment of the matter, and I entered upon 
this pleasing duty with a hearty good will. But the prospects of 
success were far from flattering. The subjects of the Tariff for the 
South and of the Bank Veto, momentarily expected, for the North 
and East, were the most important resources on which the oppo- 
sition relied to win the great game they were playing for the govern- 
If the question of the Tariff could be satisfactorily disposed 
of, General Jackson, in addition to being greatly strengthened in 
al the southern states, might reasonably count on carrying his native 
tate—South Carolina. Without such a result, that, at least, was 
: ainly lost to him, whether it fell to Mr. Clay, or not. When so 
m a depended upon the passage at the last session of Congress be- 
e the Presidential election, the policy of the opposition would be 
ain to defeat it. °The South Carolina gentlemen had, besides, 
been carrying proceedings with so high a hand and were so much 
lushed by the degree of success already attained that they could 
not, as they thought, afford to be satisfied by anything short of a 
E . % easure which should carry upon its front the stamp of triumph. 
zl they were therefore in a condition which required that the great 


° MS. V, p. 85. 
541 


542 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. = ~<a] 


body of their people should be satisfied, if satisfied at all, age 
the will of their leaders. 
The Bill passed? but did not produce the slightest coliioe e: 
other than to embolden the would-be nullifiers. The majority i 
South Carolina refused to give their support to Mr. Clay, the whig 
candidate for the Presidency (an act of principle for which 
were afterwards held to a strict accountability in the hour of 1 
utmost need) but they were nevertheless not a whit behind the w 
in their anxiety for the defeat of President Jackson. The agite 
of the preceding year, with nullification more distinctly depicted 1 
the foreground, was renewed with fresh vigour in all the south fro 
the day of the adjournment of Congress to the period when the re 
sult of the Presidential election was known, but still without anj 
overt acts. After the election had been held and the reelection ¢ 
the President was ascertained the convention of South Carolin: 
previously chosen, assembled; all farther hesitation was laid asid 
and the measures of that body were as bold and unqualified as th 
movements of the majority in the state had before been guarded ax 
circumspect. A large committee composed of the most distinguishe 
members of the body was appointed on the first day, and to thei 
was referred the obnoxious act of Congress, and a consideration « 
the remedy. That committee reported on the following mornir 
ordinance declaring void the Tariff law, and making it the dw 
the Legislature to pass all necessary laws to prevent its exec 
in the State of South Carolina. This ordinance was considered 
adopted on the same day, and the Legislature being in session fort 
with passed a voluminous act the provisions of which, if carried im 
effect, would have completely superseded the power of the Fede: 
Government in the state of South Carolina quoad the law in que 
tion; and for carrying them into effect they pledged the civil a 
“ses power of the state. It was not in the power of langue 
or state action to put the authorities of the General Goverm 
more absolutely at defiance than was thus done by this heretc ( 
devoted and always gallant member of the confederacy. Vi 
in connection with fis danger that the disaffection, as yet subst 
tially confined to South Carolina, might be diffused into the ot! 
southern states similarly situated in respect to the Tariff and t 
consequent necessity of exerting the military power of the Fe 
Government for its suppression, it must be admitted that a 
alarming crisis in the affairs of this country had never existed sit 
the sou isdimes: of her independence. 
Fortunately—most fortunately for the welfare of the whole ec 
try, South Carolina inclusive, and for the safety of the Fede 


ijJuly 14, 1832, An act to alter and amend the several acts imposing duties an d 
ports. : 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 543 


Government, the best we could ever hope to see established, we had 
at this perilous moment a man at the head of that Government 
who was in all respects equal to the exigencies of the occasion. The. 
integrity of his motives, his proverbial readiness to assume every 
necessary responsibility, his intelligence, judgment, activity and 
firmness, confessed by foes no less than by friends, his possession 
of the full confidence and affections of a vast majority of the 
eople of the U. States, as had been recently demonstrated by the 
ipport they had given him in the face of an opposition violent and 
mbittered beyond anything before that period known to partisan 
warfare, constituted his ample and rare qualifications for the duties 
before him. He was besides, in times of peculiar difficulty and dan- 
ger, calm and equable in his carriage and always master of his pas- 
sions; with the fullest opportunities to judge of him in the latter 
respect, as connected with the discharge of civil duties, I have ever 
felt and said that I have not known his equal. Those who will take 
the trouble to read his letters to me during the whole of the critical 
period to which I refer will see the qualities I have attributed to 
him strikingly displayed. He seemed always prepared to go to 
the full extent of his duties, but never faster nor farther than was 
indispensable to the efficacy of his acts and the necessities of the 
public service. No man ever lived with less disposition to swagger 
and if he sometimes denounced a harsh purpose against the guilty his 
motives and aim were invariably consistent with the merciful im- 
pulse which was native to his heart. No step requiring the active 
interposition of the Federal arm was known at Washington, at the 
opening of Congress on the 4th of December, 1832, to have been 
taken by South Carolina. The subject was ae merely noticed 
in the President’s Message, in a proper spirit but with appropriate 
serve. But almost immediately thereafter the news arrived of the 
assage of the ordinance and on the 1ith'of December, President 
Jackson issued his proclamation which was a long and able docu- 
ment reasoning out the whole subject before the people; a course 
to which he was always partial and made so by the great extent 
of his confidence in their sagacity and good sense. That document 
was followed by the prompt dispatch of portions of the military 
of the U. States to Charleston under specific instructions. The ° 
opposition, taking it for granted that these instructions were of a 
violent and indiscreet character, called for their transmission to 
Congress. Although a compliance with such a call might justly have 
been declined as inconsistent with the public interest, the instruc- 
tions were forthwith and without reserve laid before that body 
and proved to be such as they ought to be and in all respects suit- 


544 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.  — 


disappointment visited upon both branches of the opposition | 
this disclosure was very great and it would have been well i 
had profited by the occasion to make themselves better acqua 
with the character of the man they had to deal with. ; 
The powers of the President under the existing law having bet 
exhausted a special message was sent to Congress containing anoth 
full view of the whole subject with specific recommendations 
favour of the grant to the executive of additional power and a 
thority, the exercise of which had become unavoidable in ec 
quence of the stand taken by South Carolina in the passage o: 
ordinance and in the means her legislature had provided for 
ing it into effect. This message was sent in on the 16th of 
uary, the earliest allowable moment, but still leaving little ~ 
than six weeks before the expiration of that Congress under t 
Constitution. The time allowed to mature the measures of # 
Government and what was, if practicable, of still greater 
tance for the passage of some measure of relief by which # 
necessity of a resort to military force might be superseded, 1 
therefore extremely short. The celebrated Force Bill was, not | 
appropriately, introduced by a Pennsylvania Senator’. It w: 
least strong enough for the occasion, and drew forth a debate 
threatened to be interminable and, in the meantime, the House 
Representatives were kept tinkering upon Mr. Verplank’s? bill 
the modification of the Tariff. The President, having exe 
the power with which he was clothed and having °asked fr 
proper department what was further wanted, maintained the 
tenor of his way undismayed and undisturbed by the el 
abuse of factions which, whilst they differed toto coelo up 
abstract question of nullification, rivalled each other in h 
under various pretences, opprobrium upon the venerable pa 
the head of the government, whose whole soul was enlisted 
(public cause. He had at this time, it must be admitted, one 
\which approached to a passion and that was an inclinsiiand 
himself with a sufficient force, which he felt assured he coul 
in Virginia and Tennessee, as “a posse comitatus” of the M 
‘jand arrest Messrs. Calhoun, Hayne, Hamilton and McDuffie 
‘midst of the force of 12,000 men which the Legislature of 
‘Carolina had authorized to be raised and deliver them 
Judicial power of the United States to be dealt with accord 
law. The reader will find this project more than once 
his letters to me written currente calamo. But notwith 


° MS. V, p. 90. 
1Senate bill No. 82, 22d Cong. 2d Sess., a bill to further provide for the col 
of duties on imports. It was introduced by Senator William Wilkins, Jan, 2: 
passed and approved by the President Mar. 2. ‘ 
2Gulian C, Verplanck, 


s sf : 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 545 


Bs 


shat is there said the attempt would never have been made save 
in case of the very highest necessity and would then have been 
xecuted with as much scrupulousness and clemency as would have 
been consistent with its certain accomplishment. 

‘Whilst the course of events at Washington was as favourable as 
sould be expected under such novel and trying circumstances the 
resident became involved in additional embarrassments from 
purces which were for the most part friendly. It has from the 
ommencement of the present federal government been a debatable 
point whether the Constitution under which it was formed had 
een framed and established by the people of the United States in 
their aggregate capacity as one people, or by them as citizens of 
different and preexisting States acting as the people of the several 
states and under state authority. The result claimed to follow the 
stablishment of the one or the other construction, was, that the 
ecognition of the first would serve to increase the importance and 
> swell the power of the Federal Government and proportionably 
) depress those of the State Governments, and so vice versa. The 
ld federal party was, from the beginning the zealous advocate of 
e first position and the republicans of the latter. But on the 
present occasion there was ho necessity or justifiable motive for 
mingling that question with the agitation of that of nullification, 
of itself sufficiently disturbing. 

The President’s proclamation, it is not to be denied, favoured the 
ederal idea, not so unequivocally as was pretended, but sufficiently 
© give cause of great uneasiness in quarters entitled to respect, and 
which there was much anxiety that he should do what was neces- 
y to prevent the mistake into which he had been led, without 
rong intentions on the part of any one, from being in future relied 
pon asa precedent. The fact was that the whole of his new Cabinet, 
ugh an able and patriotic body of men, had, with the single excep- 
n of the Postmaster General, Major Barry, a very modest and 
btrusive man, received their first political instruction in the fed- 
‘school. So I have always understood and still believe the fact 
ve been. Although I placed full confidence in those gentlemen, 
‘ing had no inconsiderable hand in the construction of the Cabinet 
every reason to believe that no member of it would have been 
ted against my remonstrance—a deference that would neither 
@ been asked nor extended out of any personal feelings of my 
but sprang from a thorough conviction that I would have been 
certain not to have made exceptions to any of them if I had 
een able to satisfy the President that they were well founded. I 
yet never free from apprehension that difficulties might arise 
that source and did what I could in so delicate a matter to put 
President upon his guard. In my letter to him from London 
[et t483 —vor 2—20 ——35 


f \ 
546 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. __ : 


under date of the 11th of October, 1831 will be found ee fe 
tences: 


One word more upon the subject of the Message. You have taken jy 
ground upon the basis of a strict construction of the Constitution and it is 
only true and saving ground. A great proportion of your Cabinet, although 
other respects quite the thing, are not altogether in that sentiment, and, with- 
out much care on your part, doctrines may be suggested and adopted (“ oh! my 
prophetic soul! ”’) which would expose you to the charge of inconsistencies. 
am led to this observation by understanding from the Captain of the Packet 
that our good friend McLane intended to recommend a provision authori 
advances to destitute Americans in foreign countries to enable them to 
home. Now, although this is justifiable in the case of distressed seamen, 
the power to regulate commerce, and to provide for a navy, I know of 
authority in the Federal Government to extend that provision to our citizens a 
large.* 


The Cabinet doubtless participated largely in the construction ¢ 
the message and it was proper that they should do so, and the Pr 
dent had ache more pressing and more practical questions on 
mind than speculative disquisitions upon the construction of the g 
ernment [Constitution]. That the nullifiers should with avi 
seize upon those points of the proclamation which were at vari 
with the orthodox states’-rights creed was to’be expected. It 
the only ground of argument upon which they could sustain th 
selves and was in their hands a powerful lever with which to m 
large portions of the republican party who were inaccessible to 
appeals in favour of nullification. But that those of the whig ps 
who thought the crisis a perilous one, who saw, as they could not. 
see, that the very safety of the Government depended upon the Pr 
ident’s being sustained, should seize upon this defect in his procla 
tion (for such in reality it was) to fan discord between him and 
great body of his republican friends who were as much opposed 
themselves to nullification, could not with reason have been ani 
pated. If ever there was an occasion on which the reckless 
unscrupulous spirit of political partizanship should have suceum 
to the extreme necessities of the public service—have forego 
own temporary and unworthy advantage for the sake of the p 
nent interest of the Country—that seemed to be one of such a 
acter. But the leading whigs, hearty anti-nullifiers as they 
and anxious for the overthrow of the principle, could not suffici 
master their partizan feelings to view their duty in its true 
Instead of taking no notice of the alleged discrepancy between 
President’s professed principles and those set forth in the proel 
tion they, as a general rule, did all they could to blazon it forth, 
to thrust it in the faces of his alarmed state-rights friends. The 
great meeting called out by the proclamation was held at Bost 


1JIn the Van Buren Papers, 


«AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 547 


yl. Perkins* offered the resolutions and Harrison Gray Otis and 
2] BWebster were the leading orators. That there should be no 
for misunderstanding their design to make political capital 
of that document they set forth the federal creed upon the point 
ed to almost totidem verbis and greeted the President’s recog- 
of it with a sinister, all hail! 
m Randolph’s resentment at the moment against President 
ackson prompted him to seize upon the Boston proceedings with 
characteristic sagacity and bitterness and especially upon the 
astance that the highly respectable and worthy gentleman 
had been selected to offer the resolutions and the elder of the 
g speakers—a not less estimable man—had been delegates, 
half of Massachusettes, to the Hartford Convention, and to 
upon these proceedings and circumstances the charge ex- 
d in his famous Charlotte County resolutions. No man ° under- 
better than he the mortification and pain he inflicted upon 
true men of Virginia, whom he could not induce to abandon 
on, when he proclaimed, in his peculiarly graphic language. 
hat the latter “had disavowed the principles to which he owed 
is elevation to the Chief Magistracy of the Government of the 
United States and transferred his real friends and supporters, 
hand and foot, to his and their bitterest enemies, the ultra 
lists, ultra tariffites, ultra internal improvement and Hart- 
1 Convention men—the habitual scoffers at State-rights, and 
instrument, the venal and prostituted press. by which they 
deavoured, and but too successfully, to influence and mislead 
opinion.” 
Union meeting in the city of New York, at which the im- 
‘names of James Kent and Peter A. Jay were associated with 
of their prominent political opponents Walter Bowne, Saul 
Abraham Bloodgood and Eldad Holmes, presented a grati- 
contrast with the sinister proceedings at Boston. But the 
patriotic spirit of the resolutions they passed was not, I am 
to say, imitated by the whigs of Albany or by those from 
parts of the state who were members of the Legislature which 
ed a few days thereafter. I resided in that city and was en- 
) dine with my excellent friend Judge Vanderoel? on the 
proclamation was received. A copy was brought in to 
rt time before dinner was announced and, painfully anxious 
its contents, I detained the company some minutes to enable 
complete the reading of it to myself before we sat down to 


548 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. — 


to my mind at the instant and the Judge, reading my feelings i 
my countenance, asked me, with the impatience that belonged t 
his nature, whether there was anything wrong in it—to which, a 
his company were of various politics, I made an evasive reply. A 
soon as the dinner was concluded he took me aside and pr 
me with increased earnestness for an explanation. I then , 
to him without reserve my apprehensions of the extent to whic 
a document, upon the success of which so much depended, woul 
in all probability be weakened by its unnecessary assertion of doe 
trines regarded by the republican faith as political heresies. 

Although the descendant of a tory ancestry and reared in th 
federal school, and until a short time before that day, one of m 
ablest, most persevering and most decided opponents, the Judge ha 
embraced our cause with ardour and sincerity and adhered to 
through the rest of his life. His clear and vigorous intellect w: 
not slow in apprehending and appreciating the ground of my f 
The following extract from a letter written to me by Mr. Me 
then Secretary of the Treasury, a few days after the special 
sage which produced the Force Bill was sent in and a few we 
after the Proclamation, will show how well my opinions in re 
to the latter document were appreciated by the Cabinet at Washin 
ton: a 

What think you of the Message? Your silence speaks your thoughts of tl 
Proclamation. You too, I suppose, cursed my old federalism an hundred tim 
and laid all the sins at that door.’ * 

Judge Vanderpoel and myself were invited to dine with Juc 
Woodworth the next day, where we met Judge Spencer who 
long before returned to the ranks of the party in which his politi 
career was commenced and who, notwithstanding his already : 
vanced age, was as violent in his partisan feelings and as earnes' 
sincere in his convictions as he had always been under whatever flag 
he fought, for his whole political career was an unceasing battle. 
was not long before he broke out, with his usual vehemence, in 
ing the President’s proclamation—addressing himself to me a 
the table. Having had a long and varied intercourse with 
Spencer, sometimes as friends and at other times as opponents 
has already been largely spoken of in this memoir, I was not a 
for the turn it would be most expedient to give to the discu 
was obviously determined to provoke. I therefore said to 
substance, and at once, that the proclamation was an admi 
paper,—in all respects, save one; well calculated to promote the 
portant object its author had in view, and that it afforded me 
satisfaction to find him so zealous in its support; the exception to 


1 McLane to Van Buren, Jan. 23, 1833. In the Van Buren Papers. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN, 549 


vhich I alluded, I said, consisted of some speculations in which the 
paper indulged, as I thought, unnecessarily, respecting the origin 
nd construction of the federal government, in regard to which I 
hought erroneous grounds had been taken, but, as the recommenda- 
ions it contained were well warranted, whether all its theories were 
sound or unsound, I trusted that gentlemen like him and myself who 
were equally solicitous for the success of the government in the im- 
ortant matter in which it was engaged, would feel also our duty to 
void weakening its arm by invoking discussion of an abstract point 
and I referred with approbation to the excellent example which had 
been set in this regard by his friends, Chancellor Kent, Mr. Jay and 
their associates of New York. The Judge was evidently not a lit- 
tle nettled as well as embarrassed by the unexpected views I had 
expressed. He knew very well that I would not assent to the por- 
tion of the doctrines of the proclamation referred to and he had 
hoped to precipitate an argument upon the point which could not 
under the circumstances be otherwise than unpleasant to me but 
‘which he perceived could not then be brought about. His whole 
‘demeanour, as well as that of several of his friends at the table, gave 
‘me a foretaste of what we might expect at the meeting of the legis- 
lature during the ensuing week. I foresaw from the moment the 
proclamation appeared that it would be seized upon by the whigs 
to divide the President and myself, who had just been elected on the 
aie ticket, and to force upon our political friends in the legislature 
‘a discussion in which it would become the duty of the republican 
‘members to impeach the political orthodoxy of an important state 
paper whose author they had supported and continued to support. 

_ Among the first propositions, aiming to produce this complica- 
tion, was a resolution offered by Senator Seward,' declarative of the 
_ sense of the State Senate that “the President of the United States, 
in his late proclamation had advanced the true principles upon 

which only the constitution can be maintained and defended.” This 

resolution was regarded as insiduous upon its face and therefore 
| indefinitely postponed by a vote of 19 to 9—all the supporters of 
General Jackson’s administration voting for the postponement ex- 
| cept three who were converts from the federal party,—a significant 
| sign of the origin of the objectionable clause in the proclamation. 

Anticipating kindred movements in the House of Assembly, I ad- 
vised our friends to raise a joint committee of both Houses, to whom 
might be referred all similar propositions, and whose duty it should 
be to report the sense of the legislature upon the whole subject. This 
was done and Nathaniel P. Tallmadge, then a recent convert from 
the Clintonian party, was placed at its head. I prepared the re- 
port and resolutions which were presented to the two Houses by 


1 William OH. Seward. 


bay 


550 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.  __ 


the joint. committee. The report gave a full view of the origin 
history of the question which had been raised upon the proclai 
tion and disposed of it in the following words: 


°The history given by the President of the formation of our governm 
has drawn forth conflicting opinions in respect to its accuracy; and lest t 
committee might be regarded as having omitted any portion of their duti 
they will, upon this subject, also, with deference to the views of others, 
briefly, but frankly, state their own. ‘ 

The character of our government, so far as that is affected by the manner 
in which the Federal Constitution was framed and adopted, has been alway 
a matter of more or less contention. Differences of opinion upon the subj 
have been in some degree fostered by a seeming discrepancy between 
preamble of the Constitution and historical facts; and perhaps in a § 
greater degree by the different senses in which the term “States” is 0 
by different persons. If we use that term, not merely as denoting particul 
sections of territory, nor as referring to the particular governments, e: 
lished and organized by the political societies within each, but as referr 
to the people composing those political societies, in their highest sover 
capacity (as the committee think that in this respect the term should 
used) it is incontrovertible that the states must be regarded as parties 
the compact. For it is well established, that, in that sense, the Constituti 
was submitted to the states; that, in that sense, the states ratified it. 
is the explanation which is given of the matter in the report of the Vir 
legislature, which has already received the sanction of the committee. I 
in this sense of the term “States” that they form the constituency 
which the Federal Constitution emanated, and it is by the States, acti 
either by their Legislatures, or in Conventions, that any valid alteratio 
the instrument can alone be made. It is by so understanding the subject 
the preamble is reconciled with facts, and that it is a Constitution establ 
by ‘the people of the United States,” not as one consolidated body, but 
numbers of separate and independent communities, each acting for 1 St 
without regard to their comparative numbers. It was in this form 
the Constitution of the United States was established by the people of 
different states, with the same solemnity that the Constitution of j 
respective States were established; and, as the committee have heretof 
insisted, with the same binding force in respect to the powers which 
intended to be delegated to the Federal Government. The effects whi 
likely to be produced by the adoption of either of the different versi 
the Constitution contended for, it is not the intention of the commi 
discuss. The positive provisions and restrictions of that instrument could I 
be directly abrogated by the recognition of either. t 

The comparative weight and influence which would be attached to 
allegations and remonstrances of the States, in respect to supposed ; 
tions of the compact, might, however, be very different, whether they 
regarded as sovereign parties of the compact, acting upon their re 
rights, or, as forming only indiscriminate portions of the great body of 
people of the United States, thus giving a preponderance to mere num 
incompatible with the frame and design of the Federal Constitution. 
diversities of opinion which have arisen upon this subject have been I 
or less injurious, according to their influence in inclining or disineli 
the minds of those who entertain them, to a faithful observance of the ] 
marks of authority between the respective governments. Professions 


° MS. V, p. 100. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 55k: 


easily made, and the best evidence of a correct appreciation of the nature 
and design of the system by a public agent is to be found in the general 
bearing of his official acts. If his conduct be characterized by a desire to 
administer the government upon the principles which his constituents have 
elected, and by a determination to repudiate the dangerous heresy that the 
Constitution is to be interpreted, not by the well understood intentions of 
those who framed and of those who adopted it, but by what can be made 
_ out of its words by ingenious interpretation; if he honestly believes that the 
people are the safest depositary of power, and acts up to that belief, by evincing 
an unwillingness to exercise authority which was not intended to be granted, 
and which the States and the people might not, on open application, be 
willing to grant; if he has steadily opposed the adoption of all schemes, 
however magnificent and captivating, which are not warranted by the Con- 
‘stitution—which, from the inequality of their benefits and burthens, are cal- 
culated to sow discord where there should be union, and which are too fre- 
‘quently the offspring of that love of personal authority and aggrandizement 
_ which men in power find it so difficult to resist; if he has done all in his 
ower to arrest the increase of monopolies, under all circumstances so ad- 
verse to public liberty, and the equal interests of the community; if his 
official career has been distinguished by unceasing assiduity to promote 
economy in the public expenditures, to relieve the people from all unneces- 
sary burthens, and generally to preserve our republican system in that sim- 
plicity and purity which were intended for it—under which it has hitherto 
been so successful, by which it can alone be maintained, and on account of 
which it has, until this moment, stood in such enviable and glorious con- 
trast with the corrupt systems of the old world; if such be the traces of his 
efiicial course, and if in maintaining it he shall have impressed all mankind 
with the conviction that he regards as nothing, consequences which are merely 
‘personal to himself, when they come in contact with duty to his country, the 
people of the United States will not doubt his attachment to the true prin- 
ciples of that Constitution which he has so faithfully administered and so 
nobly supported. Such the committee take pride in saying has been the 
Official course of our present Chief Magistrate, a course by which, in the 
estimation of the people of this State, he has established for himself im- 
shable claims to their gratitude, respect and confidence. 

“The committee have thus explained their views upon the several delicate and 
deeply interesting questions before them, with the frankness which becomes 


the movements of a sovereign State upon matters involving her relations with 
her sister States. In doing so they have felt it to be their duty to vindicate 
aid explain the political principles which are entertained by themselves, and, 
s they believe, by a majority of the good people of this State. In the perform- 
tations upon the motives of those who may differ from them. The same 
independence and toleration which they claim for themselves they are disposed 
10 extend to others. Amidst the conflict of interests and feelings with which 
those who are charged with the conduct of public affairs at this interesting 
are obliged to struggle, there is happily one opinion which has not 
yet met with a dissenting voice in all the land; and which it is fervently hoped 
is ‘too deeply implanted in the minds and hearts of the people to be ever eradi- 
ated. Itisa thorough conviction, that anarchy, degradation, and interminable 
tress will be, must be, the unavoidable results of a dissolution of the union 
f these States. Associated with this undeniable and undenied truth, and grow- 
ag Out of it, there are, we trust, two other sentiments of equal universality—a 


552 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Pe 


determination to maintain the union at all hazards, and a willingness tou : 
liberal concessions, nay sacrifices, for the preservation of peace and recip ro 
good will among its members. Upon this great conservative platform all s 
cere friends of the Union, all who honor and truly respect the parting ad 
tion of the Father of his Country, all who prefer that country to their | 
ambitious views of personal aggrandizement, and who are disposed to give 
the Executive of the United States a cordial and efficient support, can 
and act in concert to promote the greatest of all earthly objects. Here 
may earn the enduring respect and confidence of the people, by an honor 
sacrifice of personal and party feelings on the altar of their country’s sa 
We may differ as to the time, the manner, or to the extent of the meas 
to be employed, whether of conciliation or coercion. It cannot be expected 
the present crisis, that honest and unprejudiced minds should all haj 
to arrive at the same conclusion; but such differences should not occa 
heart burnings, much less resentments. Our fathers differed in like man 
in the establishment of our Government, and it is in vain for us to hope 
exemption from similar embarrassments. The causes which produced ¢ 
have not yet ceased to operate; they have been planted by the hand of na 
and cannot be entirely removed by that of man. Those, to whose valor 
disinterested patriotism we are indebted for this glorious system under w 
we have so long and so happily lived, overcame them by mutual conces 
and compromise. If every man looks only to his own interest, or every Sté 
to its own favorite policy, and insists upon them, this Union cannot be 
served. We must not deceive ourselves upon this point, or suffer other 
Geceive us. Our errors, in this respect, may lead to consequences which ¢ 
rever be recalled, and over which we and our posterity may have occa 
to shed bitter tears of repentance: we must take higher counsel than 
which is derived from our pockets or our passions: we must be just, an 
need be, generous; and the deep and ‘overpowering attachment of the ¢ 
mass of the people to the Union, the fidelity, energy and fortitude of h 
character, directed by the illustrious man so providentially at the head of #] 
Government, will carry us safely through the dangers which threaten ou 
beloved country. ; 

The Report was unqualifiedly against the nullification doct 
recommended a reduction of the tariff and the observance by 
Federal Government of a spirit of concession and forbearane 
long as practicable and was accompanied with resolutions for ca 
ing “these views into effect. After many efforts to stave off or qué 
the expression of the sense of the Senate that body concurred in t 
general conclusions of the-Committee by a vote of 23 to 6, and on t 
ae resolution in favor of conciliation by a vote of 28 to 1. « 
following were among the numerous comments upon the Re; 
made by the press: 

From the New York Evening Post. 


This document is drawn up we are happy to-say with an ability eq 
the momentous and interesting questions submitied to the committee, and i 
cusses them in a firm yet conciliatory temper. We need not enter at presel 
to an analysis of a state paper which will be universally read, further ths 
say that whilst it protests against the doctrine of nullification as anarchical 


aBy the time this vote was taken the Whigs had obtained information of Mr. Cla 
intention to compromise. 


_ AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 553 


RE a fesenty snthorined or contemplated by the constite- 
ae pes the Tariff Bill of the last session an inadequate measure 
and expresses a desire that a farther diminution of duties may be 
y adopted 

eet em of 1st. February, 1833. Report on Nulli- 
State rights &c, &c. 

= Se thes gurnine nearly exclusively with this important 
ee es nee 3 fe 2 mont conn and 
the nature of our political compact—ihe origin of parties— 
eewey of the State and Federal Governments —Nullification, 


he » Democracy in the eld times and at all times. We have not 
say all of this invaluable state paper which it and the occasion 
md at our hands. We shall recur to it tomorrow. It will take its 

fi records of the country by the side of the Virginia and 

ms and with Madison’s Report. and be reed, in the mean- 
Stand = ae 
faon of the Whigs to make politica] capital out of the 
as in this way signally defeated. 

| a copy of the entire proceedings to the President and 
m that I was the author of the report. Nothing further 
Sed between us in relation to them, but when I came to 
Se Toaneuration his private Secretary and nephew, 
Ison, told me that he (Donelson) read them by himself 
bmitted my letter with its enclosures to the General ; that 
ad | all the papers very deliberately. erage? letter upon 


: y- Without doubt, General Jacke saw in the 
sding a realization of the apprehensions I had expressed 
ee fe Londen and im other ways, and was well 
nth the judicious way in which the difficulty had been dis- 
ee York Lesiclature. 
mistration and its friends im the existing Congress did 
= the power to pass Verplank’s bill or any bill for the 
f the tariff that would be satisfactory to South Carolina. 
2 was not disposed to be satisfied with any relief that 
l¢ from that quarter. In respect to the whig party they 
lamed different dispositions. That party went indeed against 
Hifiers in all strong measures designed to bring them to sub- 
7 amore. Such a course was not only m harmony with 


Ying by the feclings with which the course of South Carolina 
ising to vote for Mr. Clay and in throwing away her suffrage 


CHAPTER XXXVII. 


It is difficult to imagine a more critical condition than that i 
which I found the country involved at the moment of my arrival 2 
Washington on the 26th of February, 1833. The judgment of al 


the States, not even excepting that of her closest neighbour an 
twin sister, N. Carolina, was that the position which had been as 
sumed by South Carolina was, in the felicitous language of Ran 
dolph both “weak and mischievous.” .The “Force Bill” was ¢ 
tain to become as it did become the law. Having throughout 
earnestly pressed upon Congress the justice and propriety of e 
cating the State from the otherwise fatal error she had committe 
by a liberal modification of the tariff, President Jackson was pre 
pared to follow wherever it might lead the path which he wa 
ways eager to tread—the straight-forward path of duty. That « 
in the then posture of affairs, was simply to see to the execution 
the laws, for the enforcement of which he was armed with abundai 
powers and, however severe and painful might be this exercis 
was sure of the approbation of all good men. In such a co 
South Carolina would be unavoidably crushed and yet after 
stand she had taken it was not to be expected that a people so bh 
and proud would yield to anything short of relief or overwh 
force. 

Henry Clay was, in the actual state of things, the onl 
who had it in his power to extricate them. He was the 
of the so-called American system; his friends every where— 
north, east and west—had taken open ground against any 
modification of the tariff and could not be brought to th 
only step by which civil war could be avoided save at his bi 
There were then only seven or eight days before the po 
Congress to act in the matter ° would terminate. When Mr. 
houn came to the support of my administration years after 
there arose a bitter feud between him and Mr. Clay in the 
of which the motives by which the latter had been actuated 
occasion of which we are now speaking were severely car 
on the floor of the Senate. Mr. Calhoun insisted that Mr 
was then in his power—that he was.“his master”! “ 


° MS. V, p. 105. 
554 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 555 


master ”! Eped Mr. Clay, with indignation, and in his best and 
loftiest manner “I would not accept him for my slave.” The 
Knowledge of the precise state of feeling which induced him to 
consent to a sufficient modification of the protective system to arrest 
further proceedings is most probably buried with Mr. Clay in his 
grave. That he capitulated is certain, but it was to a variety of 
5 controlling circumstances and not, I think, to the command Mr. 
Calhoun had acquired over his position. The condition of Mr. 
Calhoun was a helpless one. The situation into which he had been 
chiefly instrumenta] in bringing his proud state did indeed exert 
an influence over the actions of all concerned but it was an influence 
ery far from that of command. The evils about to be inflicted 
m South Carolina on account of her contumacy—the loss of life, 
of property and all the sufferings which follow in the train of 
hostile military occupation to which her high spirited people were 
destined—would be attributed to Mr. Clay’s obstinate adherence to 
a policy to a very great degree of a selfish character and which 
was fast losing ground before sounder and more comprehensive 
theories among the communities of the world. This would be one 
f the certain results if he refused to yield and it was one upon 
yhich a man of his temperament could not look without the deepest 
oncern. Apprehensions of prejudice to his popularity arising 
from this source, it is fair to presume, were not the only grounds 
f hesitation that were presented to his mind. Four Presidential 
lections had then already passed away since he commenced the 
struction of his hobby—the “American system,”—and he was 
dently not so near the Presidency, the great object of his ambi- 
ion, as he had appeared to be when he began his work. This 
hough good cause for reflection was not of itself sufficient to induce 
am to abandon his offspring to the derision of his opponents; 
etimes a wise step but one which authors and inventors seldom 
e sufficient resolution to take. But he might well regard his 
t experience of its little success in turning the public mind in 
favour as at least sufficient to deter him from encountering 
y and, in this case, extraordinary responsibilities in its support. 
hing is now or has ever been clearer to my mind than that the 
mcey of the tariff question in producing political effects has al- 
s been greatly overrated. To go into the examination of the 
sons for the disappointments on the part of the supporters of 
protective system in their reliance upon that agency would be 
elon to my present objects and I will therefore content myself 
with saying that in my county and state, both of which possess 
rked facilities for manufacturing establishments, I never, in 
he whole course of my long and active partisan experience, knew 
_ election the result of which I had sufficient reason to believe 


556 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


was controlled by the agitation of that subject. This has 
for the want of busy agitation for there are but few if any 
States in the confederacy in which the question has constitute 
more prominent point in political discussions. In addition to 
considerations I have referred to, we know, from his own decla 
tions, how largely Mr. Clay was influenced by apprehe 
founded on the signs of the times, that his system was destil 
to a speedy overthrow and by a consequent desire to save fro: m 
wreck as much as might be secured. J 
Mr. Clay’s speech of the 25th of February, 1833, in ropigl me 
Webster who opposed his compromise bill, is truly an extraord: 7 
production. The reporters, Gales and Seaton, say it was the a 
one of his speeches during that short but most exciting s 
which he prepared for the - press himself, and it shows cleanly 
great pains he bestowed upon it.? I cannot but think that th 
shorter than many, it is distinguishable from any speech 0 01 f 
extant for its happy combination of close and strong reasonif 
for which he possessed ample powers altho’ he was not often i 
to exert them—with genuine eloquence which was cola 
and to which he delighted in giving free scope. The occasi io 
its delivery was one of the two on which his feelings were 1 
deeply enlisted than on any other in the course of his checke: 
eventful life. The first was when he was charged with havi 
induced to desert the political party in which he was reared f 
boyhood and with the movements of which some of the brig] 
features of his political career were indisputably — by 
allurements of office, and on that of which we now spetee 
freely charged with abandoning a national policy which 
been principally instrumental in fostering into existence From 
ducements of a mixed nature, but none of them, to a proud r 
statesman, free from humiliation. The former attack was of 1 
personal character and therefore more exasperating in its ef 
It crossed his path when he was comparatively a young pe 
proudly claiming to be animated and governed by a chivalr 
self sacrificing spirit, and I have elsewhere ventured cheil opi 
that he treated the grave impeachment at least unskilfully. — 
General Jackson’s witness, Mr. Buchanan,” dodged the 
should have scouted further inquiry and indignantly t 
back upon an imputation unsustained by the man to who 
cuser had himself referred for its origin and support. If he 
done so his subsequent career would have been a happier if 1 
more successful one. His present embroilment was less ea! 


1In Register of Debates, ix, pt. 1, 729-42. 2 James Buchanan. 


a 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 557 


a in his personal feelings and therefore less disqualify- 
get action on the part of a man of his impulsive dis- 
involved principally the wisdom of his views as a states- 
tter which could more dispassionately be discussed and 
| than one which implied personal dishonor. It occurred 
od when he had been long in public life, when his sensi- 
become somewhat blunted, a condition if not very at- 
leader whom we incline to admire yet not without its 
him in the rough and tumble of public life. But whatever 
occasioned it, of the fact that he bore himself with infi- 
tter grace and sustained his position more successfully—there 
ie slightest doubt. Having always estimated his rhetor- 
s highly, especially for the theatre of a popular assembly, 
seldom failed to read his speeches, and of all delivered by him 
e changed his political position I am inclined to regard this, 
ng considered, as the ablest and the most creditable to his 
ll as to his head. 
sch is my warrant for my interpretation of the motives 
he was governed. Its entire scope shows his conscious- 
the question of pacification or civil war depended upon his 
action and his keen sensitiveness to the constructions that 
y put upon that action of the character I have suggested. 
will accuse us of indifference to the preservation of the 
l of being willing to expose the country to the danger ° 
‘ar”—was prominent among the consequences which he 
the view of Mr. Webster of the inexorable adherence to 
as it stood for which the latter contended. These con- 
seemed to fall unheeded on Mr. Webster’s breast. His 
was brief and I had almost said bloody. South Caro- 
retrace her steps under the law as it stands, or things 
their course. The apprehension that Congress will be 
to have acted under the influence of panic, was, in his 
sufficient to close the door upon the thoughts of concilia- 
‘Clay had hoped that the crisis was not yet so near at 
3 opponent seemed willing to believe it to be. He thought 
ina would avail herself of the request of Virginia, con- 
h Watkins Leigh, to postpone the execution of her ordi- 
1 the end of the next session of Congress, and that, of 
President would stay his hand. But then came the 
the support of which formed so Jarge a portion of his 
ech, that by that time the privilege of conciliation, with 
of modifying the tariff, would have passed from their 
se of the President and his friends to swell an authority 


° MS. V, p. 110. 


“ Ly “6 ral a, @Q FF . a= 
| il 


6. ft & 22 Beet es SS eee. 


558 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


already so formidable and which they were all justly anxio 1s 
restrict. To sustain this position he brought forward argu 
and facts of great strength and applied them with eminent ab 
The perusal and study of his speech will bear out my opinion an 
in all respects repay the student. . 
It so happened that I had also contributed somewhat to fortif 
his position. Before Mr. Clay brought forward his measure of r 
lief at Washington, I prepared, at Albany, the report of which 
have spoken, of which conciliation and a reduction of duties wer 
principal features and which received the almost united sanctio 
the New York Legislature; and whilst he was exerting himself t 

promote the same ends I threw out suggestions, in reply to an in 
tation to a public dinner, tendered to me by the friends of the 
ministration in Philadelphia, going to justify Mr. Clay’s adn 
tions to his political associates that the relief required by the Si 
would be extended by the Administration if he and they did 
give it, whilst to do so was yet in their power. He was per! 
already too full of his subject to be materially benefitted by 
concurring illustrations of his argument, but there had been ci 
stances in my previous course which gave some consequence to yY 
I said and did upon the subject of the tariff, and these had d 
no inconsiderable additional force from the fact of my elect 
the second office under the Government and from the possi 
uot to say probability of my succession to the first within the s 
period of four years. My reply to the Committee of invitation 
prepared with somewhat more care than is usual on such ocez 
with a full knowledge of what was going on at Washing 
which place I was hastening, and with an anxious desire to n 
myself useful in putting an end to the painful and menacing eris 
that existed. 
The following is an extract from my letter, which was forth 

published : 
. 


The present condition of our Country is as you justly observe, a peculiar 
yet I cannot but think that the dangers which menaced our institution: 
already quietly lessened, and bid fair to be speedily and happily removed 
is to me most obvious that. the difficulties attending a satisfactory adjust 
of the tariff are now reduced to questions of time merely. The repeat 
earnest recommendations of the President to Congress in favor of a redu 
of duties to the revenue standard, by means of a law which shall be ce 
in its ultimate effect but yet so gradual in its operation as to give the gre 
extent of protection to existing establishments that shall be found cons 
with the paramount obligation to relieve the people from all burthens y 
are not necessary to the support of Government—recommendations 
propriety of which he so distinctly placed himself before the American D 
at the late Presidential canvass and in which he was triumphantly sustaine 


ae: 


a vast majority of them—seem to be now unembarrassed by any oppositi 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. _ 559 


d to have become the favorite and universal sentiment. These important 
ints established there can surely be nothing in the residue of the subject or 
n the details of the bill by which they are to be carried into effect, that, if 
acted upon in a proper spirit, may not be overcome without threatening the 
lic peace or endangering the stability of our Union. Any measure which 
ll successfully accomplish the objects proposed, and which shall be of a 
acter to recommend itself to the moderate men on both sides of the ques- 
(the only securities we can have for its permanency) will, without doubt, 
receive the approbation of the people and restore the different sections of the 
Jountry to those relations of peace, affection and good fellowship which are 
indispensable to the prosperity and happiness of each and all. That these 
reat objects shall not fail for the want of such an arrangement is so em- 
hatically demanded by public sentiment, as to allay all apprehension. Should 
ie present Congress, unfortunately, be unable to effect it we may count with 
nfidence upon the speedy and successful efforts of the next. Until this de- 
sable result shall be attained we have a safe guaranty against violence and 
ords in the discreet exercise of executive authority, the pervading patriot- 
| of our countrymen and that sacred, inextinguishable love of union which is 
the predominant master-feeling in an American bosom. 
That Mr. Clay should not, after his long experience, have been 
ught to doubt the efficacy of his American System, at least as an 
nent of political strength, is scarcely possible, and if his own 
ancement had been the sole object of his labors in its support 
could not have furnished a wiser course than to have submitted 
tly to its overthrow by the assaults of his successful adver- 
There was no way in which the advantages to the Country, 
he claimed for it if the policy was sustained, might have 
pressed with greater safety or less trouble because all the 
ances and embarrassments of business, from whatever causes 
ing, would have been attributed by the manufacturers to that 
hrow. But I cannot now, when the passion and prejudice 
hat day have run their course, read this speech without believ- 
that much of Mr. Clay’s original confidence in the soundness 
value of his system—if it could have a fair chance—had sur- 
d his many disappointments. Doubtless the insatiable craving 
manufacturers, “whose conscience is their maw,” and whose 
ude for benefits received did not at all times bear fruit for 
‘must have again and again disgusted the benefactor who had 
ontributed so liberally of his time and faculties to their advantage, 
It we may assume that he regarded these as sacrifices unavoidable 
ny great public cause, and I have, as I have said, reviewed these 
tions at this late day with a strong faith in the sincerity 
assurances of continued confidence in the system which were 
from him by the circumstances jn which he and it were placed 
which were expressed with so much earnestness and true elo- 
Mr. Clay pressed the measure of conciliation of which he 
on his side, the exclusive author, and which he alone could 


y 


560 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


~ 


have made successful, to its perfect consummation and thus sai 
the Country from a convulsion which impended over it, threai 
to put our entire political system to a severer trial than any 
which it had ever been exposed. In this he was doubtless in 
inconsiderable degree influenced by considerations personal to hi 
self, but if we are never to award praise for beneficial actions 1 
less they are wholly free from such inducements they must be Wi 
held altogether, for the race of public men thus immaculate h 
yet arisen in the world. In my opinion he rendered his cow 
on that memorable occasion, a service for which he was eminen 
entitled to its respect and gratitude. If he failed to receive th 
in a full measure the deficiency is to be attributed to political co 
plications in which he had unhappily involved himself and throv 
which he was made responsible for many political delinquencies 1 
his own. 4 
His conduct when contrasted with that of his sometime co-pa 
san, but always rival and never unqualified friend, Mr. W 
calls for especial praise. If the omission to render a high pul 
service when°® opportunity offered could ever be excused on 
ground that the act would enure to the present advantage of tl 
who had been personally hostile to him, Mr. Clay would have 1 
in that crisis, much stronger justification than his distinguis 
contemporary for folding his arms and suffering things to tak 
course—for (to use his own strong language) “ even silently 
on the raging storm and enjoying its loudest thunders.” In hi 
great political disaster, the attending circumstances of which 
sunk deep in his heart, he found, or thought he found, his mos 
tive and implacable enemies, in the ranks of Mr, Calhoun’s poli 
following. He carried the belief thro’ life—I do not say with | 
much justness—that Mr. Kremer, of Pennsylvania, whose ¢ 
the first promulgation of the charge of a bargain with Mr. 
acted under the advice of Mr. Ingham, of whose political r 
ship with Mr. Calhoun from a very early day I have already 
His friend, Gen. was at the time on the point of fig 
duel with Mr. Calhoun’s right-hand man, Gen. McDuffie, g 
out of disputes in regard to the same subject. Indeed the wai 
between Jackson and Clay, upon that and other themes of a 
sonal nature, was principally conducted by the friends and p 
adherents of Messrs. Clay and Calhoun respectively until the 
found themselves arrayed side by side in opposition to P 
Jackson’s administration. The men who had been most pre 
in those excited times and conflicts now figured conspicuo 


° MS. V, p. 115. 1 George McDufiie, 


_ AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 561 


: Carolina Movement and an opportunity was presented 
t of his own seeking, to glut his revenge upon them if he so 
But he was above such meanness. He knew those gentle- 
be, in the main, generous spirits, who, obeying the impulses 
earts, had rashly followed their leader to a precipice from 
step more would plunge them in irretrievable ruin, and, 
ng himself to be stayed from serving his Country by the 
of sparing his enemies, he went straight forward to his 
nd accomplished the safety of both. This course was bold, 
= and public-spirited, and if Mr. Clay failed to enjoy the 
in life that credit should be awarded to his memory. 
truth of history, whose claims stand immeasurably above 
considerations, must attach to Mr. Webster’s conduct at 
xz moment a very different character. It fell far below 
t example eure him. He had no corresponding causes 
int against Mr. Calhoun and his friends. The quarrel 
lay and Calhoun and their followers had been a quarrel 
friends, marked by the extreme violence and bitterness 
guish evil from foreign war or family dissensions from 
ies between strangers. Between them and Mr. Webster 
d been nothing beyond the common opposition of party to 
y—tepublicans against federalists. I may be mistaken, I cer- 
uly | op. 2 that I am mistaken, but the observations of a long and 
fe political life have deceived me more on this than they have 
0 1 any other point if Mr. Webster was ever capable of exer- 
ga Magnanimous forbearance towards a political opponent 
a | Fis belioved still faithful to his friends and his cause. On the 
on before us he failed to exhibit a trace of such feeling. He 
m democrats the authors of his own failure under prospects 
a, $0 far as they had been founded on great abilities, justified 
ne hopes and he seemed to hate tes from the bottom 
His ill will yielded only in degree as those to whom 
ected fell from grace in the estimation of their own po- 
n; it gave ground neither faster nor farther, but ended 
raternal embrace only when their separation from their former 
es was complete. Although the nullifiers afterwards served 
great pinch he then knew them only as a class of men 
a he had received good cause of offense in their invariable 
it Opposition, and when he saw them falling he was prone 
to the utmost. So much at variance was his position 
etates of a magnanimous nature and with the proper 
dhilosophy of political divisions that Mr. Clay, in that 
of the very few instances in which such a thing oc- 


det 


562 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, = 


curred—far excelled him, even in the department of severe 2 
ment in which he commonly overpeered his fellow legislators. 
The state of my own feelings at that interesting crisis is show1 
by evidence the truth of which would not be questioned at this 
day by any candid mind. I had scarcely returned to the Country 
before I was interrogated upon all the great public questions o 
the day, including nullification, by a meeting held at Shoceo Spring 
in North Carolina professing to represent different parties. Theit 
letter reached me whilst on a visit to the western part of New Yor! 
and my answer, although dated at Owasco, the residence of m 
friend Gov. Throop,’ was principally written, in pencil, whilst tray 
elling in public conveyances. It is to be found in the 48d vol. oi 
Niles’ Register,? and contains a brief sketch of the principles by 
which my course was then and afterwards uniformly governed. I 
have never prepared a paper of that character with which I hay 
been better satisfied. To do it full justice the reader should knoj 
in advance that the proceeding and call upon me, tho professedl 
the work of supporters as well as opponents, originated with an 
were controlled by the latter and were so understood by me at th 
time. But this is not the only or the principal contemporaneou 
exposition of my views in regard to the questions of the period t 
which I now refer. Baffled in their design to produce a schism if 
our ranks in the Legislature our opponents determined to resort t 
a public meeting at Albany as a means to that end. Benjami 
Knower, an old republican, a man of high character and estimatio 
and father-in-law of Mr. Marcy, then Governor of the State, had i 
volved his considerable fortune in speculations in the purchase 
sale of wool and stood in imminent danger of being wholly ruin 
Altho’ thro’ life a man of integrity his politics became, at leng 
controlled by the exigencies of his pecuniary circumstances 
thus impelled he resolved to do all in his power to prevent a mod 
fication of the tariff which was required to settle the difficulty in 
South Carolina. To advance this object he united his efforts y 
those of the opposition to obtain an expression from the city 
state (so far as the latter could be done thro’ a meeting at the 
of Government) against nullification but also against concession. 
was a man of much influence and activity, the former being of ¢ 
augmented by the relation in which he stood to the Governor. — 
had a call drawn up for a meeting without distinction of part) 
express its opinion upon the great question of the day, and he 
tained to it the signatures of all or almost all of the leading fr 
of both the State and National administrations then at the seat of 


1Enos Thompson Throop. : 
2Page 125. The pamphlet, 5 pp., printed by Blair 1834, is in the Van Buren Papers. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 563 


he State Government, as well as of those in the opposition and a 
arge number of gentlemen who, like himself, altho’ democrats, were 
mmovably intent on upholding the tariff. Of the result of such a 
neeting, in a city then largely opposition, Mr. Knower and his asso- 
fates considered themselves justly secure. A great number as- 
embled at the City Hall, in answer to the call, and, after an excited 
fort to act in concert, separated—those who really approved of the 
ourse that the Administration was pursuing retiring to the Capitol. 
it their respective places of meeting each portion adopted resolu- 
i expressive of their opinions. Both condemned nullification 
aithout reserve; that division of the original assemblage which had 
paired to the Capitol declaring also in favor of a further modi- 
eation of the tariff, in conformity with the recommendations of the 
resident, whilst those who remained at the City Hall—by far the 
reater number of whom belonged to the opposition—protested in 
the strongest terms, against the proposed change. 

Pending the preliminary movements for these meetings and shortly 
they had been held I addressed the following letters to my con- 

adential friend Silas Wright, then representing our State in the 

enate of the United States. I have elsewhere mentioned that after 
the publication of his letter to me in regard to Mr. Sanford (which 

aS surreptitiously obtained and given to the newspapers by the 

pposition) he made it a rule to destroy the letters on public af- 

irs in any degree confidential which he received—a determination 

[have much cause to regret and of which I was not informed until 

iter his death. Upon a careful examination®° of the papers left 

him these, and a few others of less consequence, were found. T 
tad kept no copies and had no distinct recollection of their existence. 
They bear Mr. Wright’s endorsement and are now inserted here. 
rbatim et literatim, as the best evidence of my views at the period 
md as candid contemporaneous explanations of the political move- 
mts and measures of which they speak. 


TO SILAS WRIGHT, JR. 
y DEAR SR 
have really not time to write you, but will do so in a day or two. Our 
ds are deeply disturbed by the call which has been made for a public 
= tomorrow and to which they have lent their names. Our friends have 

er determined to attend and say honestly and fearlessly what they 
k. The meeting will be very numerous and possibly quite animated. Be 
apprehensive of doing what you, in the honest exercise of your excellent 
ment, think for the good of the Country. The people desire that justice 
1 be done and the public peace and harmony preserved and will support 
best men in the discharge of their public duties, of the sincerity and 
° MS. V, p. 120. 


Fr Pe po oe 


om Sy i 
564 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Ri 


integrity of whose motives they are satisfied. The means taken here 4 
action upon the subject of the tariff will produce a severe reaction. — 
Remember me cordially to Hoffman and the rest of my friends, and be 
me to be : 
Very truly yours, 


Jany 23d, 1833. 


TO SILAS WRIGHT, JR. 
ALBANY, Feb. 4th 
My peak Siz 
I was favored with yours of the 29th ultimo last evening—for which 
my thanks. You have before this seen the proceedings of our frien 
and the Report of the joint Committee will have been sent to you b 
hands. The separation which took place at the City Hall meeting 
providential event, by which political designs that had been nursed with 
care by our opponents were promptly and efficaciously baffled, and the 
licans of this State placed on better ground in respect to the tariff th 
have ever heretofore stood on. The course of our city friends will 
sustained by the sincere friends of the administration in the State, wii 
few if any exceptions, and the Report of the Committee approved, so’: 
relates to nullification and secession, by a unanimous vote and in 2 
respects by the unbroken strength of the Republican side of the two 
I regret that you should be so annoyed by suggestions as to the | 
effect which the course of my friends in Congress may have on the ne 
dential election. You could not, my dear Sir, have better expressed 
feelings upon that point than you have done in your replies to such 
tions. All I desire is that my friends should pursue that course which, 
own unbiassed judgment, they shall think will best subserve the intere 
Country and dispense the largest share of justice to every part of it; 
could in no way act more contrary to my wishes than by allowing 
to be diverted from that course by the consideration referred to. The pe 
will in their own time concentrate upon the individual whom they t 
adapted to the occasion and no one, I assure you, will acquiesce in t 
biassed decision upon that subject with more cheerfulness than my 
therefore there are any so reckless as to seize upon the present di 
state of the Country to further views of personal ambition and So- 
to believe, notwithstanding the experience to the contrary of the las 
years, that the Presidency can be reached by means of combinations, b 
artfully devised, or individual and selfish efforts of any description, m 
will, I trust, do me the justice to keep me entirely disconnected : fro 
such intrigues. 
That it is the ardent wish of the Republicans of this State, without 
ous diversity of opinion, that the dissatisfaction which exists at th 
shall be removed by a reducton of the revenue to the wants of the Gove 
upon the principles stated in the Report of the Joint Committee of tk 
lature, is beyond all doubt. I am the last man who would ever at 
exercise any influence over my friends other than such as to be deriy 
a frank interchange of opinions and views upon equal terms, ifr 3 
vain enough to suppose that I possessed any other—which I am no 
therefore with no such view that I say what, from my present posi 
the knowledge I possess of the difficulty of arriving at the truth 5, 
to public sentiment situated as they are, I think it my duty to s 


whether pecuniary or political. The current of public senti- 
mocracy of the State is decidedly and actively the other way. 
estion has passed off very well. Our friend Butler, after hav- 
= matter all winter, was in danger of being placed in the 
ated candidate by the indiscretion of Mr. Livingston. But the 
understood here that even the opposition do not affect to mis- 


indly to your messmates—tell them to keep cool and be good 
they do, and believe me to be 
: ; Very truly yours, 

M. Van Buren * 


: The autograph draft is in the Van Buren Papers. 


CHAPTER XXXVIII. 


° Whilst sketching the progress of our political parties I r notice 
my return from England without regarding its chronological 
lation to events afterwards described and brought the subject doy 
to my arrival at Washington and reception by President Jacks 
I was induced to do this by a desire to bring in my remarks up 
his veto of the bill to extend the Charter of the Bank of the Unit 
States at the most appropriate place. A similar course has be 
pursued in other parts of this memoir from a desire to ins 
I propose to say on certain special subjects at one place and 
to save the reader the trouble of connecting scattered and | d 
severed observations. The events which followed my return W 
now be taken up at the point at which the narrative was then I 
On the morning after my arrival the General escorted me in ] 
own carriage to the gate of the Capitol and was doubtless 
inclined to accompany me into the Halls of both Houses if offi 
etiquette had not prevented him. I made my way to the 
Chamber in which body I had spent so many interesting hour 
most of the Senators who were in the Senate including the gre: 
part of those who had acted adversely on my nomination. 
friends gathered round me and affectionately welcomed my ret 
A few of those who had voted against me under the behests of tl 
party and who knew me well enough to be satisfied that I tid 
suspect them of personal hostility also approached me and exchan, 
friendly salutations. 

Amongst the latter I remember with pleasure Stoddard Jol ohns 
and Waggaman,! the two Senators from Louisiana and a few 
Judge Ruggles? of Ohio had been the chairman of our celebr 
Crawford Caucus in 1824 and stood by my side witho i 
or flinching through the whole of that unequal and trying r 
dential contest. Not an unkind word had ever passed bet 
and though shaken in his politics by his distrust of Gener 
son, a feeling in which his state largely participated, he hac 
actually changed his political position until he was driven to 
course in consequence of the displeasure of his old associates 
his vote upon the occasion of my nomination. He was a p 


°MS. V,p.126. +4Josiah-Stoddard Johnston and George A. Waggaman. * Benjamin Rug 
566 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 567 


man desirous to do right and did not, I am persuaded on that 
on depart intentionally from that course. The fault was in 
erves rather than in his heart. He was almost always in deli- 
ite health and the pressure of such men as his colleague Ewing 
id Mr. Clay aided by innumerable letters from his state, a kind 
£1 machinery of which the then opposition knew the use and value 
stte than any party that ever existed, proved too much for him. 
nator Mahlon Dickerson came to me and said, half laughingly 
id half seriously, that my old friend Judge Ruggles had asked 

1 to present him to me on which I stepped up to the Judge and 
ook hands with him with a degree of cordiality which seemed 
relieve him from a load of self reproach. Mr. Calhoun was in 
£ but my mind received no impression in respect to his con- 
or appearance which it has retained. Our relations had been 
ag too openly and decidedly hostile to be affected by what had 
recently taken place. Senators Clay and Webster were absent in 
1e Rats of Representatives whither I proceeded in a short time. 
s I approached the outer door of that Chamber and had raised 
hand to it it was opened from the other side and Mr. Webster 
ed he and myself being at the moment the only occupants of the 
vestibule. He instantly dropt his eyes and kept them upon 
} marble floor as he passed me. Our meeting was too sudden 
on both sides unexpected and we passed Gable other too rapidly 
admit of premeditation. He obeyed the impulse of the mo- 
vt, an impulse born of a sense of shame. I happened to turn 
the left hand on coming into the narrow passage which ran 
ad the outside of the seats of the Members of the House of 
esentatives and thus unconsciously rendered unavoidable a 
@ with Mr. Clay who was making his way, on the same side, 
ywards the door by which I had entered the Chamber. Our prog- 
Z| being frequently interrupted was so gradual as to attract the 
ention of many of the Representatives towards us—among 
ss of a large group from among whom William S> Archer (a 
guished member from Virginia and an old personal friend 
oth of us) came to me, with mock gravity, and said that the 
having taken into consideration the relative positions in 
Mr. Clay and myself had been thrown and claiming the 
to regulate a meeting which must now inevitably take place 
esence, had decided that we might approach each other with 
and most friendly expressions of countenance, shake hands, 
brace and, indeed, indulge in any further demonstrations 
on that suited our tastes, but that /7ssing was inadmissible 
nuld be held to be a breach of the privileges of the House 
a contempt of its dignity. This speech being loudly applauded 


— 


'< 


568 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


by those who heard it still further contributed to the noto 
awkwardness of the “ situation.” 

Mr. Clay having before advanced slowly—taking erated 
and chatting with another—now stepped rapidly cmcaatl 
me his hand and led me to one of the sofas which, tapdingne 
raised platform, overlooked the seats of the members. Here y 
and conversed for some time about England and some of t 
quaintances he had formed there on his return from the Ghen 
sion, when he left me and repaired to the Senate Chamber 
he alluded to our meeting in the manner I have elsewhere dese 
The character thus given to our personal relations by Mr. C 
the face of the House of Representatives of the United States 
first meeting after he had taken his part in the matter of my 
nation enabled me consistently with a proper self respect to co 
my intercourse with him on the footing I preferred—one ~ 
ignored the too prevalent idea that political differences necess 
draw after them personal hostility. Altho’ profoundly con 
of the difficulty of knowing oneself, however honestly and ho 
humbly the subject may have been studied, and of the conse 
hazards of describing one’s own motives and dispositions, I yet y 
ture to say that to uphold this line of separation between pe 
and political differences and to protect social intercourse f. 
deleterious influence of partisan illiberality or violence were 
me cherished objects during my political career; nor do I pert 
myself to doubt that this justice, at least, will, when I am no m 
be accorded to my memory by most of my surviving contempora 

The incidents of the first morning I spent in the two Houses 
Congress, after my return from England, were, upon the wh 
very gratifying, but the pleasure they were well calculated to 
was damped by a mortifying falling off in another and most 
quarter. At an early hour of the morning following my 
and before I had seen any of my friends except those who b 
to the President’s family, I was called upon by Mr. Blair, the 
afterwards the able and inflexible editor of the Washington “G 
He had not long occupied that position when I left Washi ng 
my Mission and I had had no acquaintance with him anterior 
coming there to take charge of the Globe, but I had seen en 
him to confide in the sincerity and integrity of his character, : 
fidence which all my subsequent intercourse with him has se 
confirm ‘and increase. The relation in which he was regarded 
opponents as standing towards me at the time may be inferr 
the application that was made to him by Colonel Johnson 
Grundy, two of Mr. Calhoun’s friends, in respect to the pub 


°MS. V, p. 130. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 569 


‘Appeal’ of the latter as heretofore narrated. He took me 
and made to me a communication the substance of which he 
ated in a note addressed to me at Lindenwald long after my 
nent from public life; to which he was induced by seeing me 
igned in the public papers in anonymous articles which he ae 
9 proceed from a meddling neighbour and avowed friend of Mr. 

icLane, whom [I had felt myself obliged to remove from office, 
articles Mr. McLane knew to be in all respects false but. which 
not attempt to arrest as it was well understood he might have 
The following is a copy of that note, so far as it relates to 
ibject : 

take my pen to ask you if you remember the first conversation I had with 
er your return from England in the window-niche of the General’s 
reakfast room. 

‘then told you that McLane had conspired with your enemies during your 
ce to ruin you—that he had laboured to supplant you with General Jack- 
and was solicitous to exclude you from his ticket and had exerted hiimsel 
te me from your interests—conjuring me to discontinue the war I had 
m the Senators who voted your rejection and to give over the efforts I 
aking to rally the Democracy on you as Vice President. My acquaint-. 
ith you at that time was so new that I did not expect you to abandon 
d of long standing on my representations—I hesitated therefore to make 
n and only brought myself to it from the consideration that it would guard 
rom the hypocrisy which might otherwise impose upon you. 

1eed not say how much I was disturbed by Mr. Blair’s communi- 
ion. My strong predilections rendered it impossible for me to 
ive his statements as in all respects well founded and led me to 
; conclusion that he had imbibed prejudices against Mr. McLane 
had been thus induced to place injurious constructions upon acts 
h would prove susceptible of a different interpretation. But 
was a manly candour in his declarations and a force in the 
mmstances to which he referred to show that he could have no 
motive than to warn a man whom he saw cherishing as a friend 
> knew to have been his enemy, and whom he thought was in 
r of sustaining further injuries from the same source, which 
red but did not entirely overcome my habitual hearty faith in 
McLane’s friendship. He authorized me to give his name to Mr. 
me as the author of the communication he had made to me 
hat he was aware of the risks he assumed by placing himself 
t position; Mr. McLane holding a high office under the Gov- 
t which had more patronage at its disposal than any other 
ossessing the confidence and friendship of the President, 

he, he hoped, at least equal in General Jackson’s preach 
rd, was but an editor of a newspaper; which considerations, 
not allow them to deter him from doing justice, would, he 
satisfy me of the disinterestedness of his motives and of the 


570 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. a 


sincerity of his professed objects. I thanked him for the f ‘ien 
feelings by which he had been actuated in respect to mysel 
assured him that I did not in the least degree doubt their sin 
but begged him to excuse me for hoping, notwithstanding his expli 
statements, and my confidence in his truthfulness, that time wou 
disclose some satisfactory explanation or essential qualification oft 
matters he referred to. I then informed him of my intention to ¢ 
sult the President upon the subject, and obtained his perma n 
inform him of what had passed between us; of which cou: 
declared his approval as one he expected me fo adopt, adding # tl 
having performed what he regarded as a duty he would of 
leave the matter entirely to me and if, for any reasons I should 
it best to take no further notice of it he would be satisfied. 
Mr. McLane paid me a visit a short time afterwards, I belie 
on my return from the Capitol. There was in his manner an 
fort to suppress embarrassment by which my attention was im 
diately arrested. Sensible how natural it was that I should in 
such a state of feeling on his part after the communication 
‘received I laboured, in good faith and with a degree of success 
dismiss the subject from my mind, but of course, it was out 
my power to do so altogether. Our interview, of which and of | 
carriage my recollection is as fresh as if the scene had occur 
yesterday, was brief and our conversation confined to the g 
topics of the day. I had, before I saw Mr. McLane, recei 
note from Mr. Kane,’ a Senator from Illinois, a gentleman 
purest character who had been very partial to the former and 
cherished also a friendship for me which I am fully pers 
the influence of no man could have disturbed, apprismg me oi 
apprehensions that I might receive impressions injurious to 
good faith of Mr. McLane, but assuring me that as far as he k 
or believed there was no sufficient foundation for them and M 
on reaching his house after his visit, sent me a kind note 
me to ride with him the next day and to take® dinner with 
and his family on our return. This rendered it necessary tha 
should come to a conclusion in regard to our future relations be! 
T answered his note. I therefore asked an interview with the Pi 
dent and gave him the substance of Mr. Blair’s communication 
saw at once that the subject was not a new one to him and J in 
that Mr. Blair had apprised him of his intention to take the 
he had pursued, which proved to be the fact. He spoke kin 
Mr. McLane and in the highest terms of Mr. Blair’s characte 
scribed it to be such as he continued to regard it till his death, w 


1Hlias K. Kane. ° MS. V, p. 135. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 571. 


ft all his papers in his hands. He thought him incapable of 
yhat he did not at least believe to be true—but expressed 
on in regard to the subject of his present statement fur- 
could be inferred from the declaration that “he believed 
ne to be as much my friend as it was in his nature to be 

d of anybody.” Waving said this he proceeded at once 
E me to let the matter pass without further examination 
he truth of the case stated either on the one side or on the 
; I was under no obligations affecting my own character to 
it and it would for qmany reasons be wise to forget it as far 
as fast as possible. “If you will be advised by me,” he said, 
ot his invitation, ride and dine with him and let things take 
ourse.” The earnestness which Mr. Blair had manifested, the 
| with which he carried out his personal disputes, the certainty 
he e peed bring the matter before the public in his paper if 
McLane denied what he had said and the injurious consequences 
d in all probability result to the administration in its criti- 
on at the moment from such a feud upon such a subject 
men occupying most responsible and influential positions 
it would have been considerations in favour of this course 
weight with me even if I had not felt myself under obliga- 
make the General’s wishes in the matter the rule of my 


pted Mr. Mclane’s invitations. But with the best inten- 
nd every effort on the part of both, the hours passed heavily 
in infiuential member of the family charged me before I retired 
ig reserved and cold in my manner to an extent never before 
by the speaker, of which I was entirely unconscious. Be- 
understanding between the President and myself that no 
otice should be taken of the matter and that our relations 
mtinue on their former footing an understanding in which 
, feeling that he had done his duty, readily concurred, I 
specific recollection of anything said or done previous to my 
Washington, although it appears by the extract from my 
n below that some conversation took place in relation to 
m Mr. McLane and myself. On the 11th of August 1832, 

r wrote me a long letter in regard to an important appoint- 
nm pending before the President, which letter concluded thus: 


2 n0w, my dear Sir. a duty to discharge io myself and which forms an- 
ject of this letter. In all my life, public and private, in one instance 
ever been accused or suspected of indifference to my friend at any 
pecially, in the hour of difficulty: and I feel more than indignant 
iS instance is in relation to you. If you had participated in that sus 
Without an examination into the grounds which should have been 


, ee 


572 Sas 


which would have admitted of no reparation. But while you had the m 
and generosity to act in a manner due to our relations, at least for the p 
of explanation, you cannot do ample justice either to yourself or to me 
frankly informing me of the grounds of the suspicion and by whom the; . 


apprehension of opinions founded upon an unfeigned solicitude for your 
course, expressed with the frankness of a friend, and to your friends; or, j 
a bad and wicked purpose; or perhaps a busy, suspicious, gossipping ¢ 
always heedless about consequences. In either case, it is necessary for 
safety that I should know the source whence I may be exposed to sin 
jury. I am the more urgent in this instance, because of information re 
communicated to me, from my friend Mr. Latimer of Delaware, that h 
learned in Baltimore that you and I had been involved in a difficulty, 
would end in my retirement from the Administration. The source of this 
makes me regret that I did not enter more at large into one or two 
when you were here, and which I purposely reserved to a future 
How could such a report have reached Baltimore? I therefore sub: 
request to your own sense of justice. 
I should be glad of an opportunity in the autumn of conversing with 
relation to certain changes of which we spoke when you were here; 
making some suggestions both in regard to myself and others which ap 
me important; and both more feasible and expedient than some tha 
contemplation. I wish to go up the North River, probably in October, 
boys and would take that opportunity, if you were in the way, of seeing } 
in the mean time you had better keep the whole subject open in your mind. 
I am, my dear Sir, ea 

Very truly yours, L. McL 

To Martin VAN BuREN Esq. ; 


This letter reached me at Lebanon Springs and I find from a ind 
randum enclosed in it that I made the following reply to the pai 
have quoted : 


I have fully reflected upon your request in regard to the suggestions w! 
been thrown out in respect to your feelings towards me on a recent occasi 
am thoroughly satisfied that that matter ought to rest where it 
thought it due to the occasion to assure you at Washington that I was: 
of a single instance in which the subject had been referred to in an 1 
spirit as it respected yourself or from the unworthy motive of making 
between us. Since the receipt of your letter I have passed the matt 
deliberately through my mind and can with truth repeat the assur 
you would do injustice to any. of my friends with whose sentiments IT 
made acquainted, if you treasured up any unkind feelings towards 
harboured any distrust of them on that account. This is all that it is 
for you to know. That they had apprehensiors upon the point is 2€ 
I have no doubt you are correct in the supposition that those app 
proceeded from “an innocent misapprehension of opinions founded 
unfeigned solicitude for your (my) future course expressed with the 
of a friend-and to your (my) friends,” and for which in the excitem: 
moment and under deep conviction that the course they advocated w 
necessary, sufficient allowances were not made. That such a state 
should give rise to speculations of the sort was unavoidable and the 2 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 575 


thorough in their convictions that they did you injustice. 


"perhaps be made a question whether my answer in negativ- 


of those who had judged his course as an unfriendly one 
go farther, for the restoration of peace all round, than the 
or two instances warranted; but in truth Mr. Blair had 
to injure Mr. McLane who had taken particular pains to 


releng informed Mr. McLane himself that he had con- 
his conduct to me, but his friendship for him had not been 


the seceders from the federal ranxs who attached them- 
he republican party in my day and who cultivated inti- 
wtions with me and, partly through my interference, ac- 
reditable distinctions in its service there was not one for 
m I cherished a warmer friendship than for Louis McLane, or 
o whom it has been in my power to render so many and so 
‘the United States for England in the full belief that he 
s one, if there was one, of that class upon earnestness and con- 
ne’ of whose personal friendship I could place the most implicit 
ace. If the disenchantment which the future had in store for 
ved that this faith had been without good foundation at the 

e would appear to have been even more exaggeration than 
e credited to the partiality of friendship a the testimony 
xy Jackson and Forsyth to my surpassing “common sense 
d judgment,” my “unrivalled knowledge of human char- 
power of penetrating into the designs and defeating the 


1 free to confess my consciousness of one great weakness, 
though springing from a liberal impulse, is always the 
t subject to it of some and not unfrequently of severe 
nent, the weakness of forming an extravagant estimate 


= attractions, vouched by old friends, of fascinating per- 
ties. Even aside from the unreasonable amplification of 
I have described as attributable to a defect in myself 
ted to the measure actually intended by their respected 


°MS. V, p. 140. 


574 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


authors the high encomiums of my friends must be 
greatly overrated in the light of this narrative of my relati 
Mr. McLane. — . 

A review of those relations, however general, is not a pleasaz 
occupation—it is rather one which I would be most happy 
cline altogether if they were not interwoven in so many ways wil 
some of the most important incidents of my public career a: 
ensure inferences unfavorable to myself if I should pass the 
without notice, and if indeed the extraordinary pe 1 whic 
thought it fit to terminate them has not made it indispens: 
give my version of them. Whilst as I have romskall before 
often suffered impeachments of my political course and conduct 
pass without correction when I had in my possession the sure meai 
of refutation—confident of my ability to live down calumny an 
averse to continual obtrusion of myself and my affairs up 
public attention—it is due to those who stand towards me in 
relations that they will be affected by my good or bad name 
shall have finished my course that my memory should be tes 
those respects by y truth, severe and unabated, 
is all I ask. My obligation under actual circumstances is of 
doubly imperative to take especial care that my account sh 
just and true—nevertheless errors may to some extent occur 
charge those on whom the publication of this work may dev 
any such should appear when I am no longer here to correct the 
to lose no time in doing so in the most effectual way, on my beh 
and to give to Mr. McLane’s memory the full benefit of every do 
even that may be cast upon any of my statements. 

I made Mr. McLane’s acquaintance at Washington, as 1 
T remember, when I first took my seat in the Senate of the 1 
States. We both joined Mr. John D. Dickerson’s Cong 
Mess at Strother’s Hotel, comprising himself, Mrs. and } 
erson, Col. Dwight? of Massachusetts, Walter E 
York, Mr. McLane and myself. Altho’ I had consen 
ok to make one of Mr. D’s Mess I believe my real. 
with Mr. McLane was without previous arrangement and 
meeting was fortuitous; but I was almost immediately st 
tracted towards him and our intimacy rapidly grew into a 
that withstood exposure to many storms and would in all p 
have continued to flourish and to bear fruit if it had not be 
by his own act after it had reached a satisfactory maturity. Fu 
the mess at Washington too gay for us we soon followed m 
league, Mr. King? to Georgetown, where we remained dur 
and the subsequent session in a mess composed of Mr. King, 
Van Renssalaer, Harrison G. Otis, with his wife and dau 


iHenry W. Dwight. 2 Rufus King. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 575 


nm, of Virginia, Mr. and Mrs. McLane, Gorham, of Boston, 
son and Warfield of Maryland, Fenton Mercer, of Virginia, and 
thbert of Georgia.t I soon took ground in favour of Wm. H. 
awford as Mr. Monroe’s successor, in which I was earnestly and 
cordially joined by Mr. McLane but in which we separated politi- 
ally from others of our mess, including my colleague. I have 
urned to numerous letters from the former, yet on my files, for one 
of that period as affording the best illustration, in respect to scenes 
nd feelings of a time so distant, of the true character of the relations 
m existing between us. That which follows, being in fact the 
arliest in date that has been preserved, will happily be found quite 


4 


ull in regard to the political and personal dispositions and views 
00 that were avowed by him and—it must be inferred—entertained 
y me at that interesting period in our public lives, which was shortly 
store the celebrated Presidential canvass of 1824, when Adams, 


rawford, Clay, Calhoun and Jackson were candidates for that 
th office. 


WILMINGTON, April 30th, 1823. 
My pear VAN Buren, I will not pretend to tell you, how much pleasure your 
ef note of the 24th inst, gave me, but rely upon it, nothing will offend my 
federal ear” which augurs well of the success of my friends, more especially 
you are “to share the triumph.” I look upon the proceedings at Albany asa. 
ination of Mr. Crawford; indeed, they will be worth much more to him, if 
y the powerful infiuence of your state, they can lead to a congressional caucus, 
which that gentleman must place his firmest reliance. I never doubted the 
sdom of your council, and felt satisfied that, with a more intimate knowledge 
the grounds, you were the best judge of the operations. My only apprehen- 
m2 has been that some cursed apple cf discord would be thrown into your 
ate, which, as heretofore, would hereafter divide and distract her power, but I 
ied upon the Palinurus who, knowing the shoals, had skill to avoid them. 
it, my dear Sir, the strait is now passed, and I trust the Pilot will keep® 
e ship in an even steady course. 
his is a broad wish for a federal pen, and, to be frank, when 1 look round 
See those men of the party which was, but is no more, yet panting in the 
of ultraism, or something worse, and by the aid of silly disaffection, and 
stinctions grasping, with vain efforts, at the shadow of power, whose sub- 
ince is irretrievably beyond their reach, I doubt exceedingly, whether I have 
other claim to federalism, than that, which the honor of being claimed and 
hed as such by the best, and opposed by the worst citizens of my own 
native state affords me. But, after all, I must avoid all retractions— 
leave my friends, and you among others, to judge me by my actions. If 
lapse of a few months finds us both espousing the same principles, advocat- 
he Same cause, and advancing the same leader, you must give me at least 
uch credit for orthodoxy, as will be allowed to “ young Mr. Calhoun” and 
worthy coadjutors, who, under the wing of Gen’l Harper, mean to take 


phen Van Renssalaer, Andrew Stevenson, Lovis McLane, Benjamin Gorham, John 
Henry R. Warfield, Charles Fenton Mercer, and Alfred Cuthbert. 

iWoup. 245. 

ert Goodloe Harper. 


Late ri e 


576 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. — 


the palace of a coup de main:—if the famous A. B. plot* be inadequate to ue 
purpose. 
You are too warmly remembered by every member of my family, My Deut 
Sir, to have made your letter indifferent to any one of them, and it came only 
in aid of the frequent occasions we have to think and talk of you. It’atones i 
some small degree too, let me say, for the heinous offence you committed, in 
leaving Delaware to your left, on your way home, and for remaining in Phila. 
delphia no longer than to allow me time to arrive there a few hours after yo 
had taken your departure in the steam boat; I take it for granted tho-—to u 
the language of our friend Archer—that you would not have dared to hay ve 
committed this outrage upon friends who deserve better at your hands, if yor 
had not coupled with it the resolution of a summer’s visit—and let me hope 
that this event may be rendered more probable by the coming trial of the spee 
of New York and Virginia, which will force you to Long Island. I shall sen 
a very pressing summons for Archer, and I should be exceedingly happy, i 
you could prevail upon Gen’l Van Renssalaer to escort you hither, taking ca 
to bring with you Master John, for whom you have already made promise 
with which he may not be entirely disposed to comply. But fill your suite 3 
you please, and you will gratify me most. I can promise you little more tha 
the pleasure of making us all very happy with your society, and to show yot 
in the small circle of our friends, in how humble a village I am content to 
away my time. We will together examine Philadelphia and its environs an 
together inspect the pea patch to be the better prepared to silence Gen. Cocke 
in next winter’s campaign. Baltimore too, is at hand, and even Richmont 
should you be inclined to migrate so far south, is within our reach. j 
In the end, with the best regards of Mrs. McLane, believe me, my dear Si 
most affectionately yours : 


- L. McLane. 


In this cordial and unstudied letter and in the inferences it ju 
tifies in respect to the nature of my communications generally 1 
and from him the spirit and scope of my political partisanship a 
truly delineated. In them, I trust, will be perceived an unaffect 
solicitude for a sincere unity in the political faith to which I 1 
fessed to adhere as the only proper basis of political co-operatic 
and a deprecation of combinations of individual leaders and of f, 
tions for the attainment of personal or party ends without care f 
the actual political principles and feelings of those engaged in thei 
such as have unhappily become too common in later times. I¢ was 
union and concert of action in favour of the old Republican ¢ 
looking to the public good as the end of our labours, that I d 
to consummate with Mr. McLane and which he appears here 
always professed to be most willing to concede. Although so w 
and perseveringly charged through my whole life with being a po: 
ical intriguant such and no more have been the substantive ai 
my political operations. I have never pretended indifference or 


The A. B. plot, so-called, was a series of scurrilous articles by Ninian Hdwards 
Washington Republican, signed A. B., having for their purpose the discredit 
Crawford to the consequent advantage of Calhoun’s presidential chances. See Wm 
Meig’s Life of Calhoun (N. Y., 1917) vol. 1, pp. 294, et seq. / 

2 Philip St. George Cocke and the controversy as to the United States’ title - to 
Patch Island in the Delaware River. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 577 


ensibility to the good opinion of the people and have more than 
once shown my readiness to accept testimonials of their confidence 
md favour when they have been presented without solicitation and 
‘ the evidence of approval of my conduct, but I can safely, as I 
ave done perhaps before, defy my contemporaries to produce a 
single line or to recall a single word coming from me which had for 
is object the construction of combinations or the suggestion of plans 
to secure my own promotion in public life. If it shall be thought 
that the record presents evidence that ought to have satisfied me 
hat Mr. McLane did not cherish the political principles of the old 
BE iiticen school with the consistency and singleness of purpose 
with which I claimed to support them myself—that I have too often 
overlooked his shortcomings in that regard and that, blinded by 
‘ 

‘ 

tl 


F perso nal partiality, I hazarded the public interests by causing his 
idvancement to responsible public stations, be that my reproach and 
he judgment of the Country ; but let it not be inferred that I sought 
his political association to augment my own resources in my public 
f ca weer. He never had it in his power to be—neither did I ever be- 
ve he was or would be of service to me in that respect. I always 
y on the contrary that the partiality which bore fruit for him 
BE ropeated and successful efforts to advance him in official positions 
oduced an abundant crop of dissatisfaction and even alienation 
_ the circle of my old political friendships. For the offer to him 
f the place of Attorney General of the United States, as well as 
for his appointments, in regular succession and within a briefer 
period than any one man ever held them, to the distinguished posts 
of E Minister to England, Secretary of the Disses and Secretary of 
State of the United States he was, beyond all doubt, indebted to my 
intervention in his favour and to General Jackson’s confidence in 
iy opinion of his qualifications. The state of mind in which I 
found him on my way to Washington to enter upon the duties of the 
office of Secretary of State shortly before the first of these move- 
s in his behalf has been already described. His letter in answer 
| ot the offers I was authorized by President Jackson to make to him 
pe two first mentioned places have also been referred to and will 
e found in full in the correspondence. It seems now most extra- 
din ary that I should have overlooked indications of an overween- 
care for self that ought to have put me on my guard, especially 
en, at his pressing instance, I obtained also from the President a 
Tomise that he should be appointed to a seat on the bench of the 
; eme Court of the United States if a suitable vacancy occurred 
ing to the probable early resignation or death of the aged 
e [Gabriel] Duval) and communicated the result of my applica- 
127483" —vor 2—20 ——37 


be 


578 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.  — 


tion in his behalf to him at London whilst he was in possession 0 
English Mission. Judge Baldwin shortly afterwards gave the 
dent notice of his intention to resign his seat on the Bench an 
confidently expected that he would do so. There being a ms 
impropriety in appointing Mr. McLane to fill the vacancy > 
would have been thus created because of his not residinst in 
Circuit, but anticipating his anxiety upon the subject and h 
occasion to write him in answer to another application, : made th 
following explanation to him: 


‘e' 


Connected with this subject is a matter which I am permitted to mention 
you in strict confidence, but in regard to which we scarcely know what to ; 
in respect to its bearings upon your interest. 

Judge Baldwin is dissatisfied with his situation for reasons which 
unnecessary to explain further than they grow out of opposition to what 
regards as an unwarrantable extension of its° powers by the Court, and ] 
given the President notice of his intention to resign after he has complet 
his Circuit—or in the fall at farthest. You need not to be assured of 
pleasure the President would take in appointing you to the vacancy, confid 
that the Country would have nothing to apprehend from your opinions 
can it be necessary to explain to you the nature and extent of the dif 
which arises from your not being of the Circuit. All therefore that he 
himself at liberty to say is that he will watch the movement of events y 
lively zeal for your welfare, and if, when the time comes, he finds that b 
consistently appoint you it will be one of the most pleasant events of 


7 
Sy 


Before we parted in New York, I for England and he for Wa 
ington to take upon himself the functions of Secretary of the T 
ury, he asked me to write once more to the President upon the 
ject of the Judgeship. The original promise still remained in 
force but I felt the awkwardness of a compliance with his 
nevertheless as it was almost a rule with me to refuse him nothi ‘ing 
gave him the following letter: ‘ 


To THE PRESIDENT. vie 


New York, August 3rd, 183 
My pEAR Sir :— ' 
Our mutual friend, Mr. McLane retains his preference for the Bench, 
will, if Duval dies, be pleased with the appointment to supply the y: 
It is for obvious reasons my earnest hope that the opportunity to grat 
in this respect, if it is to occur during your administration, may be. d 
until it is near its close. The sacrifices which he has been obliged to n 
his Mission increase the necessity of his obtaining as permanent and 4 
expensive an employment as he can, and the extent of his family leay 
as he thinks, but little option as to his course in the event of the happer 
of the contingency referred to. > 
Believing that I understand your feelings towards him I haye taken 
liberty of assuring him that there is no object nearer your heart tk 


° MS. V, p. 150. ond 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 579 
pmote his interest and that no considerations that could be suggested can 
ease that desire. 

Very truly yours, 


M. VAN BurEN 


Perceiving, at length, in the presence of the President, the im- 
wression that would probably be produced by presenting an applica- 
on for a second office at the moment of entering upon so important 
a station as that of Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. McLane returned 
y letter enclosed in one from himself, without date, which was 
mediately followed by the letter of August 11, 1831, both of 
hich are here given. 


I herewith return you the letter you gave me for the President in order that 
dU may alter the date and transmit it by mail. I felt an insuperable delicacy 
handing it to him myself, notwithstanding his reception and his treatment 
e have been of the kindest and most endearing kind. Still the letter is 
portant. You must not ascribe it to suspicion when I assure you that Mr. 
ney jights shy of me. He was the only one of the Cabinet who kept off and 
I did not see until we met yesterday at the President's in council. We were 
ays on good terms and I know of no cause of separation now but his fears 
2 a certain subject. Therefore do not fail to send the letter. 

Let me add in connection with this subject that you are escaping from a 
m of storms and a shattered ship. I cannot doubt from all I see and hear 
t the chances are against our old Chief, and to that I shall begin early to 
ke up my mind. 

Don’t forget the letter to the President. 


ia WASHINGTON, August 11th, 1831. 
| My Dear Van Boren, 
| I sent you a large packet of letters thro’ Mr. Bowne which I hope will be 
tisfactory. I also sent you the letter you gave me for the P. in order that 
might go to him directly from you. My object in writing now is to im- 
S upon you the importance of doing me that favour: and of adding to it, 
pees feel yourself at liberty a line on the same subject to Major Lewis. He 
_ voluntarily sent me a letter once upon the subject-containing an express promise 
] oO e P—and therefore it is that I suggest to you the propriety of intimating 
im that recent occurrences should not be allowed to alter the intentions 
nerly entertained.—Believe me that I am not mistaken in the necessity of 
interference. The designs in another quarter are not to be disregarded 
there is no other quarter than you from which it would be possidle for 
to intimate my wishes. You may invent what pretext you please for your 
er, but on no account neglect it. 
e more I bid you Adieu! 
With my best wishes for your prosperity 
' L. M’L. 
jor Lewis to whom he refers was his uniform and zealous 
d and did not esteem him the less for his federal antecedents, a 
in which the Major could not but indulge in a fellow feeling, 
‘it is due to the latter to say that no considerations or tempta- 
ions, through many of which he was obliged to pass, could weaken 
| uis fidelity to the General or his desire for the success of his Adminis- 


‘ 
7 . 
BE 


“J 
| ; 


= 


580 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


tration. Although I differed with him upon many abstract qu 
I feel that I can safely bear this testimony in his behalf. The “ 
/ quarter” spoken of by Mr. McLane, referred to Mr, Taney, 
Attorney General, as is plainly enough intimated in the first 
On the day before I sailed from New York I enclosed my ori 
letter of the 3d August to the General in that which follows; and 
my last thought and my last act, at the moment of uta I 
country, were devoted to the service of one whom I thought as I 
said, bound to me by ties of personal friendship on which I x 
rely in the worst of times. 


To THE PRESIDENT. 


New York, Aug. 15, 1 
My pEAR SIR 
I gave the enclosed to our friend when here, but he has been deterred by y 
sense of delicacy from delivering it to you and has returned it to me 
request that I would write to you from here. Want of time compels 
enclose it to you and to request that you would show it confidentially t 
Lewis whom he asks to be informed as to his wishes. 
Mr. McLane is delighted with your reception of him and will in all 
come up to your expectations. Between us, in strict confidence, he app 
that another member of your Cabinet may desire the same place that 
Talk to him freely about it if you please and he will be at ease. It has 
very unpleasant matter for me to press this subject upon your attention 
moment but I could not well avoid it, and it is best that you should know a 
your son is with you remember me to him affectionately and do the 
Mr. Trist; say, if you please, to the latter, that I would write him if I « 
that he must write me often and remember me mostly kindly to Mrs. R 
Mrs. Trist and all the family. 


God bless you. 
M. Van 


CHAPTER XXXIX» 


_I read at London Mr. McLane’s first official report upon the 
finances, and, fully aware of the condition of things at Washington 
d of the positions of all parties, I regarded it as a state paper 
calculated to supersede President Jackson as the efficient head of his 
own administration upon a vital point by which it was destined to 
stand or fall. Sensible of the embarrassment not to say humiliation 
to which my venerable friend would unavoidably be exposed by the 
appearance of such a document, coming from such a source, and by 
the consequent exultation of his enemies, I could not but experience 
pain and mortification when I reflected upon the ° agency I had 
exerted to bring about an appointment productive of such results. 
[ had not hesitated a moment in rejecting Mr. McLane’s advice in 
Tespect to my hurried return to the United States and to seeking a 
seat in the Senate at the close of its session as in the last degree un- 
Wise, yet upon neither point had the suggestion raised in my mind a 
“doubt of the sincerity of his friendship. 

| hus much I had written on this subject almost in the words as 
‘they stand now—precisely in those words so far as they speak of 
“Major Lewis, when I was reminded by one of the preceding letters 
f the close friendship which had long existed between him and 
feLane, sincere as I had reason to know it was on the part of 
Lewis, and, what had a more particular bearing upon the subject 
‘before me, of a message from General Jackson to McLane or to 
Major Barry of which Lewis had once told me that he was the bearer. 
The import of the message, as far as my memory served, is set forth 
n the letter from myself to Lewis which follows. I had not then 
nor have I now any recollection of what I said or did in regard to 
‘Inessage referred to, neither can I fix the period at which the 
amuncation was made to me by Lewis. My conclusion however 
hat it was at the time when it was my intention to suffer bygones 
mn the point involved to remain bygones, and that I therefore did 
_ heed the information. These reminiscences suggested the idea 
affording Major Lewis an opportunity to say what he might 
proper in regard to the course Mr. McLane had pursued to- 
pds me in my absence, as he was for many reasons the individual 


an 


° MS. V, p. 155. 
581 


582 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


most likely to know the whole truth upon the subject and as I 
besides not a little in the dark, at this late day, as to what had b 
his own motive in making the communication referred to to me;— 
whether to put me on my guard in respect to Mr. McLane or only to 
place before me a conspicuous illustration of General Jackson’s fidel- 
ity to his friends—a feature in his character which both the Ma 
and myself had found many and interesting occasions to apprecia 
My earnest desire to protect my record of the transactions and feelings 
of which I write from the chance of error or of injustice, through 
lapse of memory or unfounded suspicion, inclined me strongly t 
act upon that idea but this course was one not free from difficulti 

The result of all my reflections upon the subject was that I owed 
it to truth, to Mr. McLane, and to myself, to afford Major Lewis a 
opportunity to say what he might desire to say in regard to it and 
the 10th of April last having had no communication with or informa- 
tion about him for nearly twenty years, I addressed him as follows: 


MAJOR WM. B. LEWIS. 


. LINDENWALD, April 10th 1859. 
My DEAR Sir, 

If my memory is not more at default than usual, you once told me tha 
General Jackson suspecting that efforts were making with the knowledge o 
portion of his Cabinet, whilst I was in England to prevent my nomination 
the office of Vice President, sent you to Mr. McLane, who, he apprehended 
favourable to the [ ] with a message to the effect—‘That if that cou 
was persisted in and made successful, he would go.to the Hermitage at the end 
of his first term”; and that you delivered it to Mr. McLane. 

I am preparing apaeaiar like an autobiography of my life to be publis 
after my death, in which the General will necessarily cut a larger fennel 
myself and through which I hope to impress my readers with a truer a 
hope still more favorable sense of his character and capacities than the 
possess. Not the least prominent feature in that character, was his fi 
to his friends; and it has occurred to me that this circumstance may be suc 
cessfully employed to illustrate his disposition in that regard—if I am corre¢ 
in respect to the facts° and you have no objection to their being thus used. EF 
was from the time of my resignation desirous that I should run for that 
but I was opposed to it before the rejection. If I am right in regard to 
principal circumstances it will be desirable that you should specify at 
period the transaction took place—whether before or after the final acti 
the Senate. If you prefer for any reason to say nothing upon the st 
yourself, or to have nothing said about it by me, you have only to say so 
the affair will be left untouched. I am not positive that I shall use it x ny 
event. . 4 

You keep quiet like a wise man, enjoy good health, I hope, and are happy I 
do not doubt, in your circumstances. Where is your daughter and how is | 
health and your own? Mine at 76 is better than it has ever before been, ¢ 
I enjoy life admirably. és 

With best wishes for your health and happiness 

Very truly yours, 


M. VAN Bus 


° MS. V, p. 160. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 583 


' 


I give the whole of his reply (except as mentioned below) be- 
sause tho’ parts of it have no particular reference to the subject . 
under consideration, they serve to show the character and disposi- 
tion of the man, and are in that respect not without value and in- 
terest:: a part of the postscript stated that there was a passage in 
the paper he sent me headed “Notes, etc.” which he particularly 
described and which on reflection he preferred should not be pub- 
lished and which being left out would not as he truly said, “ affect 
what preceded or followed in the least.” This passage, riley it 
Tepeats more specifically the charge against Mr. McLane of setting 
on foot an intrigue to defeat my nomination for the office of Vice 
President, to promote his own ultimate views in respect to the 
Presidency, implicates also another gentleman of whom he did 
not wish to speak. That part of the Postscript to his letter as well 
as the passage in the “ Notes” referred to are omitted. 


NASHVILLE, April 22, 1859. 

My pear Si, 

_ Your letter of the 10th inst. has been received, and the best reply I can make, 
it seems to me, is to send you the enclosed papers. They contain every thing of 
importance in relation to the nomination of a candidate for the Vice presidency 
in 1832, of which I have any knowledge, and are more to be relied on than any- 
thing I can say, or write, at this distant day, as they were written when all the 
facts and circumstances were fresh upon my mind. You can read them and 
if you find anything in them that you would like to have transferred to your 
promised autobiography you are heartily welcome to use them. Indeed, the 
important and interesting events therein narrated belong to the history of the 
times in which they occurred, and should be placed on record for the use of 
future historians of our country and I have not therefore, the least objections 
that you shall use them in such a way as you may deem most prudent and proper. 
i have one request to make, however, if you conclude to use them and that is, 
on reading them, if you shall find a single expression that you think will give 
pain to Mrs. McLane that you either strike it out, or modify it. I have always 
had great respect for her and her family, and would be exceedingly unwilling 
tO Say or do any thing, if I knew it, that would be calculated to wound their 
feelings. I also had great respect for Mr. McLane himself, and was always 
willing to serve him in any way I could, but I must say that I was greatly sur- 
prised to find him so strongly opposed to your nomination, under all the circum- 
Stances of the case. I had always looked upon him as one of your warmest 
and best friends and counted upon his uniting with General Jackson and his 
other friends in your support, with great certainty. I did not dream that he 
had any aspirations to the presidency himself, for the reason that I knew, when 
he left the United States for England in 1829, he had his eye upon another and 
very different object. He then preferred a seat on the Bench of the Supreme 
Court of the United States; but on his return, after having accomplished the 
objects for which he was sent to London, it seemed that “a change came over 
the spirit of his dream.” He went to Hngland reluctantly, as I dare say you 
recollect, because, he said, with his large family he could not live in London upon 
he salary our Government then allowed to our foreign Ministers. Judge 
Duvall, one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the U. States was a very 
old man, and could not reasonably be expected to live very long, and if he had 


i 


584 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. — 


Bank troubles arose, I have no doubt but that General Jackson would } 
placed him on the Bench of the Supreme Court, for he authorized me to sa: 
him, before his departure for England, that he would do so, but the rejectio 
Mr. Taney’s nomination as Secretary of the Treasury Department, by the S 
connected with other circumstances, determined the President to offer the y 
seat on the Bench, occasioned by the resignation of Judge Duvall, to him 
Taney, upon the same principle that induced him and his friends to insis 
your nomination for the Vice Presidency after your rejection by that s 
factious body, a majority of which then consisted of Clay Whigs and Calhi 
Nullifiers ! 

But Mr. McLane was not the only one of our prominent friends that de 
the nomination, in opposition to you—Gov. Forsyth also wanted it, bi 
did not enter into any combinations, or intrigues, so far as I was app 
to defeat you. Col. Richard Johnson, not only desired it, but was urging 
claims with all the power and influence he possessed to obtain it, even do 
the very last moment almost, as you will perceive on reading the notes I 
you. The claims of several others were also warmly urged by their f 
among the most prominent of whom were Judge Wilkins, Gov. Dickinson 
N. J., and Judge Philip Barber, of Virginia. The latter gentleman V 
earnestly recommended by Mr. Kendall* in a letter he wrote me 
was earnestly recommended by Mr. Kendall in a letter he wrote me 
Concord, New Hampshire, where he had gone on a visit to Gov. (Isaac 
and no doubt with the approbation of that gentleman. Seeing that this qu 
was likely to give us much trouble and unless satisfactorily arranged in 
way, and that too without much delay, might become dangerous to the 
existence of our party, in my reply to Mr. Kendall’s letter I suggested t 
the expediency indeed absolute necessity, of advising our friends every 
to get up a national convention, to convene at some convenient point, 
purpose of selecting some suitable and proper person to be placed u 
electoral Ticket with General Jackson, as a candidate for the Vice Preside 
and, as the Legislature of New Hampshire was then in session, I begged h 
with Mr. Hill’s assistance, to get it if possible to adopt resolutions, 1 
mending to our friends, in every state, the getting up of such a conven 
Such a proposition was submitted to the Legislature, and resolution 
adopted with great unanimity by the friends of the Administration, — 
proceedings were afterwards adopted by nearly all the democratic state 
Union, which resulted in the meeting of the Convention that sat in Bs 
on the 20th of May, 1832, and which nominated°® you for the Vice Pre 
This was the first convention of the kind ever gotten up I believe, 
country, and they have been kept up ever since by both democrats and y 

The conversation I had with Mr. McLane and to which you refer in y: 
must have taken place about the last of February 1832, and but a short 
your rejection by the Senate. I recollect very well previously to that 
were opposed to being run for the Vice Presidency, for I conversed 
several times upon that subject before you left the United States for 
but, in opposition to your own opinions and wishes, both General Ja 
myself were decidedly in favour of it. I thought, to be associated 
General and run for the Vice Presidency upon the same Ticket with bh 
bring you more prominently before the country, and strengthen your 
for the Presidency at the next succeeding election, and for that reas 


1 William Wilkins, Mahlon Dickerson, Fisp Barbour, and Amos Kendall, 
2MS. V, p. 165. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 585 


onciled to what most persons considered a great sacrifice, on your part, in 
g up the State Department for the mission to London. I recollect too, 
tha’ thinking it possible that you might persist in refusing to run, I consulted 
u with regard to the best and most suitable person to be run for that situa- 
tio’ n, and that you recommended Gov. Dickinson, of New Jersey; but after the 
rej ection by the Senate, your true and sincere friends were determined to run 
i, regardless of all objections whether made by enemies or pretending friends, 
d at their head stood the noble old hero and Patriot of the Hermitage. 
But I will not bore you any longer with my reminiscences upon these almost 
antiquated subjects. 
_ My daughter after whom you so kindly enquire is still living in Paris and 
her health I am happy to inform you is pretty good with the exception of 
Oo cca sional attacks of rheumatism or neuralgia. Those complaints, however, 
generally are not dangerous, tho’ sometimes accompanied by acute and severe 
pain—tIf she can only steer clear of consumption, or pulmonary attacks she 
may live to a good old age, but as almost every member of her family on the 
fother’s side has died of that complaint I have always been fearful that she 
ould be taken off in the same way; but thanks to a kind Providence, she has 
hus far escaped and as she is now upwards of 40, she may escape entirely. 
, she and Mr. Pageot are still living in Paris with the hope of soon witnessing 
exit of Louis Napoleon, and the Restoration of the Bourbons! The first she 
ay live to see and perhaps not long, as the political atmosphere of Europe 
portends approching storms and tempests just now; but the advent of the latter, 
eeaoicon even should be overthrown, I consider extremely problematical, in 
heir day at least! 
y own health, like yours, is much better than it used to be, and by the time 
et to be as old a man as you are, if it continues to improve as it has done for 
st 12 or 14 years; it will, I hope, become perfect! You say you are 76. 
m only 74 and [on] the rise, that is on the 25th day of next June I shall be 
if I live to see that day. I attribute the improved condition of my health 
ainly to the exercise I take in the open air on horseback. I havea very nice 
7m, and quite a pretty place adjoining Nashville, and ever since I returned 
rom Washington I make it a rule to ride over it, on horse back twice a day, 
hen the weather is good, morning and evering, for exercise and, at the same 
me, to see how my farming operations are getting on. In my farming busi- 
less, I am something like our old friend, the General, was in his military opera- 
pS while in the service. I not only give iny orders but I take care to see 
executed. 
any of your sons living with you; or, like me are you all alone: Martin, 
ve, did live with you, but you have had the sad misfortune to lose him, 
I regretted exceedingly to hear; but you have three left you still, and in 
respect Providence has been kinder to you than to me. I had three, a son 
wo daughters; My son and youngest daughter are dead. She died in her 
year, leaving a son now in his 15th year, and a very nice promising boy 
_ My son died in his 20th year, just after he had graduated, first at George- 
College, and afterwards at Harvard University. He was everything that 
fed and affectionate father could desire a son to be, morally and intel- 
y; but death is no respecter of persons. The ways of Providence are, 
, imscrutable! How many worthless vagabonds are permitted to live and 
at the moral and social atmosphere with their foul and pestiferous breath, 
the brightest ornaments of society are often snatched from us, as it 
in the morning of life, and in the beauty and vigor of manhood! 
ir sons when I first knew them were not grown, with the exception of the 
but now if I were to meet with them, instead of boys, I dare say I 


586 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


should find them grey headed men. Well, whether they be boys still, (so1 ne 
people never get old), or grey-heads I beg you to present my kind regard 
them, and that you will receive for yourself the best wishes of 
Very Truly Yours, 

Wm. B. Lewis. 

To MARTIN VAN BUREN 
Kinderhook, New York. ; 
P.S. The papers I send you are originals, and as I have no copies of them, 
I wish, when you are done with them, that you will put them up carefully 
and send them back to me thro the Post office; that is if we shall have, at 
that time, any such establishment in this country ! 
Mr. Larwell,? the writer of the letter I send you with the notes, is an hon 
and very estimable man, and was exceedingly useful at the Convention of 18 
He was appointed a receiver of public monies at one of the Ohio Land offic 
by General Jackson and, I believe, was almost the only one in the whole No 
Western Country, indeed I may say South Western also, that honestly account! 
for the public moneys received by them. He continued in office through yout 
Administration, and may stjll hold the same office for aught I know. 
Wo. B. Lewis. — 
Have you ever seen a correspondence between Mr. A. C. Flagg and myself 
upon the subject of your being run for the Vice Presidency? It took place 
February 1832, not leng after your rejection, as Minister to England, by 
Senate. I think it probable Mr. Flagg has preserved it, and if you have not 
seen it I am sure you would be gratified at its perusal, as it has a bearing upon 
the very point referred to in your letter to me, if my memory serves me 
correctly. Se 
Wo. B. Lewis. 
Aprin 25th/59. 4 


With the above letter Major Lewis enclosed° me also a docum 
entitled “ Notes ec.” every part of which will be found below ( 
the passage which he desired should not be published) and also 7 
original letter from Major Eaton spoken of in the “ Notes.” Bot 
papers appear to have been written many years ago altho’ 
“ Notes” in the handwriting of Major Lewis and signed by him 
no date. Mr. Larwell’s letter sent with the above is confined 
review of the preliminary steps and doings of the Baltimore Com 
tion of 1832, as to which he confirms the statements of Major Le: 

Deeply affected by the contents of these papers which thre) 
deeper shade over Mr. McLane’s conduct towards me than I | 
ever allowed myself to think it deserved I again addressed Ma 
Lewis, and asked him to inform me as nearly as he could at 
time his “ Notes” were written. In his reply he says: ak 

The statement was prepared at Washington as you suppose, but the p 
time it was done, I do not now recollect. It was, however, in the latter 
of General Jackson’s Administration, if my memory serves me correctl 


feel pretty confident of this, because about the time I contemplated dra 
it up I wrote to Mr. A. C. Flagg and requested him to send me a cop, 


1 Joseph H. Larwill. ° MS, V, p. 170. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 587 


I wrote him in Feby 1882 upon the subject of your rejection by the 
te and, also, in relation to the Convention and your nomination for the 
vice Presidency, which letter I wanted to see previously to drawing up the 
tatement and having kept no copy of it, I desired Mr. Flagg to send me one. 
this, I think, was in the Autumn of 1835, but my letter, if Mr. Flagg has 
preserved it, will show the date. At all events it was before General Cass left 
 U. States on his Mission, as Minister to France, which was in the summer 
S the beginning of the fall of 1836, because I perfectly recollect, after gettinz 
copy of my letter to Mr. Flagg, that I showed the correspondence to him, 
p that the statement must have been written in either 1835 or 1836. Why I 
did not show it to you I cannot tell, unless it was for the reason that I sup- 
osed you had already been made acquainted with all the important circum- 
fances and facts relating to that Convention. I do not think I ever showed 
t to General Jackson, nor did I ever make him fully acquainted with the 
y extraordinary conduct, on that occasion, of some of his most intimate and 
rusted friends, because I knew it would have deeply mortified him, and I had 
> wish to do that. 
“The omission of a date to the statement was probably owing, I think, to an 
xpectation that some additions might be made toit. I know that T had always 
fended to write to Mr. Larwell upon the subject and get a statement from him, 
10 was perfectly conversant with all the movements in connection with the 
F eedings of that convention, more for the purpose, howev er, of corroborating 
y statement, than from any want of confidence in its correctness. I omitted 
» do this, however until I saw in some of the democratic papers an attempt to 
apreciate the services of some of those who had been most active and resolute 
n their efforts to sustain General Jackson in what was known to be his wishes 
ith regard to the nomination of yourself for the Vice Presidency, and then it 
s I wrote to Mr. Larwell and received from him, in reply, the letter I sent 
9 you, which I filed with my own statement, prepared some three or four years 
fore. The object I originally had in view was to place it, with many others 
fa ee character, in the hands of my son, thinking they might be some day, 
esting as well as instructive to him; but after his death, poor fellow, I have 
iken very little care of them, and it is a wonder that I was enabled so readily 
ay my hand on the one I sent you. Since then I have been lucky enough to 
ie the correspondence between myself and Mr. Flagg, alluded to above, as 
i as in my first letter, and which, I herewith enclose to you. Those are the 
ily copies I have, and I must ask the favour of you to return them to me with 
e other papers I sent you. I never expect to have any use for them myself, 
I have two grandsons who possibly may. 


¥ 


But to the statement itself, which I now copy—omitting a single 

aph at his request, as explained above, and appending the 
from Eaton referred to and as much of the letter to Mr. Flagg 
S relates to the same subject: the residue of the letter treating ex- 
l ety of efforts to extend the circulation of the “Globe” News- 


Notes &c. 


cause of my writing to Mr. Eaton the letter to which his is a reply, 
explanation. The day before Judge Overton * left Washington to attend 
fimore Convention, which sat on the 20th May, 1832, I stepped into his 


21 John Overton, of Tennessee. 


588 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


room (we both occupied rooms at the President’s House) and found him bu 
engaged writing. I had scarcely taken my seat, when he laid down his pen, 
and accosted me thus—‘ Well, Lewis,” said he, “if we should not be able | 
nominate Mr. Van Buren for the Vice Presidency, who next shall we take 
I quickly replied, and with some feeling, if we cannot get him, I care not whom 
‘you select. ‘Come, come,” said he, “ that’s not like a general—an able com- 
mander always examines his ground well before he goes into action, with 
eye to defeat as well as victory, so that in case it becomes necessary he m 
make a safe retreat.” “But, Judge,” I replied, “there are times and occasio 
when like Cortez, a commander should ‘burn his ships’ with the view 
cutting off all means of retreat.” “‘ Come, come,” he replied again, “that, I 
you, is not like a man of sense.” The idea suddenly flashed upon my mind 
there was more in the Judge’s remarks than met the eye, and I determined 
to see what he was.at. ‘ Well, Judge,” I said, in an altered tone, “ perhaps you 
are right in thinking we should have more than one string to our bow. Ha ve 
you thought upon the subject? If so, whom would you recommend, in case we 
should fail in our efforts to have Mr. Van Buren nominated?” ‘“ Why, 
Sir,” he said, “I have been looking around me, and in that event, I have tho 
it would be best to take up General Samuel Smith, of Baltimore. He is a 
who has been long in the public service—is well known to the country, 
would unquestionably be acceptable to the friends of the Administration.” 
very moment he named General Smith, I saw by whom and for what pur 
he had been operated on. The whole scheme was as plain to me as day li 
Major Barry, the Postmaster General, was a connection of Judge Overton 
had a great deal of influence over him, and was at the same time in 
interest of Mr. McLane, Secretary of the Treasury, who, I was satis 
anxiously desired to defeat if possible the nomination of Mr. Van Bu 
General Smith was a favourite of Mr. McLane’s and, it was expected, wo 
of course, use the influence of his station for his benefit. ° Besides, he 
very old man, and would be in no body’s way at the close of General Jacks 
next term. There is no doubt upon my mind that Mr. McLane himself desire 
to be placed upon the ticket with General Jackson, but finding there w: 
hope, his next object was to get a friend of his own selected, who would no 
in his way, at the next presidential election in case he should be disposed to 1 
This conversation with Judge Overton caused me a good deal of uneasin 
for it satisfied me that there was an intrigue on foot to defeat the nominati 
Mr. Van Buren for the Vice Presidency, and consequently for the success 
Being determined, therefore, to probe this matter to the bottom, if in my po 
and haying resolved to sound Major Barry upon the subject, I accord 
sought an interview with him on Sunday morning, (the 19th) and wi 
letting him know my object, or saying anything to him in relation to my ¢ c 
sation with Judge Overton, I drew him into a conversation about the conven’ 
and its nominee, for the Vice Presidency. After a few preliminary rema’ 
asked him if he thought there was any doubt about the nomination of Mr. 
Buren. He said he did not consider the nomination by any means ce 
I told him I had supposed that there would be no difficulty, nor did I yet think 
there would be, as almost every delegate I had seen, was in favour of his nomina- 
tion. He replied, “I think you are mistaken in the views and feelings of | 
of the delegates.” JI cannot be, I remarked for I had conversed with m 
them from the West and I believed they to a man would go for Mr. Van B 
and I had good reason to believe that those from Virginia as well as New 


°MS. V, p. 175. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 589 


7 eed also support him. “ Why,” said he, “I doubt whether your Tennessee 
lelegates will go for him.’”’ “ Why do you doubt that?” I asked him—“ because,” 
aid he, “I am told Mr. Eaton, who is at the head of the delegation, thinks it 
= be jeoparding General Jackson’s election to run Mr. Van Buren with him 
on the same Ticket.” This, I told him, was impossible. I felt confident, I 
added that Mr. Eaton would support Mr. Van Buren. Upon this he coolly 
replied, “ You had better not be too confident, for I tell you it is extremely 
i doubtful—he will support no one, who, he thinks, will endanger General Jack- 
‘son’s election.” Here our conversation ended and we parted. 
_ Iimy conversation with Judge Overton occasioned uneasiness, this with Major 
Barry was still more alarming. The latter was an intimate and confidential 
friend of Mr. Eaton, and I thought it likely, therefore, that there had been a 
correspondence between them upon that subject. I well knew if Mr. Eaton and 
_ Judge Overton should be opposed to Mr. Van Buren that he could not get the 
nomination.—They being the peysonal and confidential friends of General Jack- 
son, would be considered as representing his feelings and wishes in relation to 
the matter, which would enable them to procure the nomination of almost any 
person whom they might recommend to the convention. This determined me to 
write, at once, to Mr. Eaton, who had been absent in Tennessee six or eight 
months, for the purpose of undeceiving him, if he had been led to believe, from 
a ny source, that the President desired the no:nination of any other person than 
Mr. Van Buren, or that he was ever indifferent about his nomination. I assured 
m, in my letter, that so far from that he would be excessively mortified if he 
should not be taken up by the convention—indeed, that he would as soon be 
ropped himself, by his friends. I had no time to take a copy of my letter, and 
a s Mr. Eaton was rather careless with his papers, I desired him to destroy it, as 
he says in his letter, for fear it might fall into the hands of some person who 
V would make its contents public, and thereby expose both the President and 
myself. Whether my apprehensions were well or ill founded in relation to Mr. 
Sie wuren, will be seen from the tone of Mr. Eaton’s letter. If I had not 
written to him there is no telling what effects the suggestions of others might 
ve had upon him. 
Judge Overton and Major Barry, however, were not the only persons of 
fluence about the person of the President, I conversed with upon the sub- 
ct of running Mr. Van Buren for the Vice Presidency. Among others I had 
on after his rejection by the Senate, a long and rather an excited conversa- 
with Mr. McLane who alleged that if he were associated with General 
kson it would endanger his success and the safety of the whole party. I 
narked to him that I thought it had been unanimously determined by the 
abers of the Cabinet to take him up in case the Senate should throw him 
erboard aS was anticipated some time before it happened. He said he was 
aware of any such understanding—hbesides, he added, it would have been 
ess for them to have resolved upon any such course, as there were other 
sons belonging to the party, over whom they had no control, who would be 
ndidates. “Who are they”? I enquired. ‘‘ Why, Sir,” said he, “Col. John- 
and Judge Wilkins!” TI told him I could not believe either would be—the 
ner, I was sure would not, for I had just had a conversation with him in 
Office, and he assured me that he would not thwart the wishes of the 
ty, if it desired the nomination of Mr. Van Buren. “ Well, Sir,” said, he, 
Can assure you that he holds a different language to me. I understand 
m him that he will be a candidate.” In this, Mr. McLane was correct, for, 
afterwards, Mr. Speaker Stevenson and myself had great difficulty in 
iling on him to authorize his name to be withdrawn. This, however, 


590 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


he did, but it was a few days only before the meeting of the convention. Ju 
Wilkins, tho’ never did decline, and was, a few days after this conversatic 
actually nominated by a state convention which sat at Harrisburg on the 
of March 3832. In my conversations with the Judge, with whom I was upi 
the most intimate and friendly terms, I was led to believe, tho’ without 
positive assurances from him, that he would at the proper time decline 
leave the coast clear to Mr. Van Buren; but he never did, and actually rece 
the electoral vote of Pennsylvania for the Vice Presidency—(For this, I th 
he was never forgiven, and was made to feel it in the summer of 1834, wh« 
he was spoken of as Secretary of Navy.) But to return to Mr. McLane. J] 
asked him why he was opposed to Mr. Van Buren’s nomination. And at the 
same time remarked that from the friendship which existed between them 
I had supposed he would have been the very first to urge his nomination for 
the situation referred to. He said no one was a better friend of his than he, or 
would be more willing to serve him, but that he could not consent to jeopare 
the administration for any one. He verily believed, he added, to place him on 
the Ticket, after having been rejected by the Senate, would sink General Jack 
son, and consequently the whole party with him. This he thought was hazard 
ing too much for any one man. I told him I apprehended no such dangerou 
consequences. At all events, I felt fully authorized in saying that the Gen 
was willing to swim or sink with Mr. Van Buren; and would prefer g 
back to the Hermitage rather than leave him to his fate under such cir 
stances. I then left Mr. McLane and had no farther conversation with? hi 
upon the subject. 

The conversation referred to above, occasioned a coolness between myse 
and Mr. McLane, and from that time until after the election we were scar 
upon speaking terms. Mr. Van Buren after his return from Hurope about @ 
first of July 1832 spoke to me about Mr. McLane and said that we ought not 1 
quarrel—adding that he was sure that he was a good friend of mine no 
standing what had passed. I told him I had no wish to quarrel with him” 
did not mean to do so if I could avoid it. After the election, however. 
McLane very frankly admitted to me (at a dinner party at Mr. Ha 
he had been mistaken in his views with regard to the effect of running 
Van Buren, and that I had formed a much more correct opinion of pu 
sentiment. Our former friendship was renewed, and he had no better 
at Washington than myself. 


Wo. B. Lewis 


°From Masor HEATON To Wm. B. LEwIs. 


(Bndorsed May 21st, 1832.) 


BALTIMORE 
DEAR Sir, of 
I have your letter of Sunday and have read and torn it to pieces 7 
requested. 


Don’t distrust my feelings towards V. B —they are, as always they heme j 
good and kind and friendly. My object has been, and is to serve General 
son; and no fear as to V. B. has ever come across me, save that his nomi 
might do injury to the General, and to V. B. The first is a prominent cons 
tion with me. V. B.’s nomination will open the floods of abuse upon him, 
defeat his future prospects; for all parties will unite against him; to ery ' 


° MS. V, p. 180. = 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 591 


and to destroy him. My belief is, that if made Gov’. of N. Y. it would be service- 

able beyond his nomination here, 

Wilkins would allay all, and keep all right. But Penn*. has not sent his 

friends here. If they had I do not doubt but he would have been chosen ; as it 

is, V. B. will succeed. For as far as I can judge V. B. will be unanimously, 

almost, selected—unless we change out of great regard to him, and to his future 

prospects. 

We have been in session all day. Judge O. was appointed to the chair. He 

was at home quite sick—very sick. I rose and returned our acknowledgments 

% for the civility—stated his indisposition, and moved that General Lucas? (Ohio) 
_ be chosen ; it passed nem. con. We have a vast crowd—more than two hundred 

& ‘Imembers—from every state except Missi. and a fine looking set of fellows. 

¥ In great haste yrs. 


- HATON. 


¥ Wm. B. Lewis To A. C. Fraag, Esa. 


WASHINGTON, 14th Feb. 1832. 
: DEAR Sr, * € * 

_ You speak in your letter of the indignation every where excited by the rejec- 
- tion of Mr. Van Buren’s nomination and intimate that it is intended by his 
‘- ‘friends, in New York, to run him for Governor. I can well imagine that the 

people of New York feel very indignant at the outrageous conduct of the Senate, 

“as is the case in every state heard from; but my dear Sir, I hope his friends will 

not think, for a moment, of running ae for any State appointment. The wrong 

_ has been done to him, the President, and the Nation by the Senate of the United 

States, and it must be redressed by the people of ail the States. From all quar- 

ters heard from, the people manifest a determination to run him for the Vice 

Presidency, and upon this, J think, they are resolved. Iam sure, if it is desired, 
or even expected to make Mr. Van Buren President, this occasion to place him 
i prominently before the Nation should be promptly embraced. If the party can- 
not how, under existing circumstances, succeed in electing him Vice President, 

he can never hope to be President. To run him for any local, or subordinate 

situation, would, in my opinion, destroy his political prospects forever. I speak 
not my Own sentiments only, but the opinions and feelings of every one of 
| General Jackson’s real friends here. Upon this subject I understand the Cabinet 
| is unanimous; (this however should not be spoken of publicly as it might have 
the effect of destroying their influence upon that subject) and we have the most 
encouraging [reports] from all quarters not excepting Virginia and Pennsyl- 
| Vania. I hope, therefore, our friends in New York will throw no obstacles in 

| the way. If they feel a delicacy in actively co- -operating, let them be passive, 
lat least for the present. I hope you will pardon the liberty I have taken in 
venturing these hasty suggestions. I write as I feel, and as every true friend 
| to the President, in this City, feels. 
I am Sir, 

With much respect 
Your Mo. obt. Svt. 
' Wo. B. LEwIs. 


1 Robert Lucas. 


CHAPTER XL. 


The conduct which is brought home to Mr. McLane upon th t 
authority of his early and constant friend is submitted to the reader 
without animadversion or even comment on my part. Most sincer 
do I regret the obligation imposed on me by considerations which 
I am not at liberty to disregard to add what remains to be old 
of our subsequent intercourse and in doing so to record, unavoidab ly 
what additional favours he allowed himself to ask and to receiy re 
at the hands of a still confiding friend, against whom whilst absent 
from the country and whilst struggling for political existence, h 
had found himself capable of aiming a blow which promised to b 
more fatal than any which the most embittered enemies could wiel 
against him. This will be done with as much brevity as the ; 
public transactions out of which they arose and with which the 
were connected will admit of. Moreover, what I have further t 
say being with full knowledge of the treatment I have rece. 
the reader will not need to be reminded of his right and duty t 
make all proper allowance for the influence of that knowledge up 
the tone and temper of the narrative. Let him also be the jud 
of the success of my endeavors to say as little as possible and tom 
that with calmness and moderation. It will naturally be thoug 
strange that the communication made to me by Mr. Blair and t 
remarkable reply to my interrogatory by General Jackson did n 
impress me with more caution in regard to further intercourse wit 
Mr. McLane. The only excuses I can give for the heedlessne 
my subsequent course are to be found in the hope I cherished 
Mr. Blair’s views of the matter, (a gentleman whom I did not 
know a thousandth part as well as I afterwards knew him), 
under the influence of prejudice, and the promise I made to Ge 
Jackson to pass the matter by—a promise which when mai 
was not in my nature to observe half- -way. But whatever m 
thought of this explanation, the fact requires me to admit | 
terference on my part alluded to in Major Lewis’ stateme 0 
appease the unfriendly feelings which had been excited i S 
breast against Mr. McLane. This must have been almost imme 
diately after the course to be pursued had been agreed upon bet 
General Jackson and myself and it adds another to the sin 
features of our intercourse that the first of my new series of efforts 
to serve Mr. McLane should have been to soothe irritation caused 

592 "| 


= Dad 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 593 


React of hostility to myself of which I was, however, ignorant, 
it would seem, weakly incredulous. 
It will be recollected that Mr. McLane in his letter to me of the 
» August spoke of a visit to the north which he had in con- 
api: tion to consult with me in relation to certain changes of 
ch we had spoken whilst I was at Washington; and to make 
ne suggestions both in regard to himself and others which he 
mei important. I received also from him some weeks later a 
ef note fixing the time when he would come to New York and 
e of the President (concurring with his own views of “in- 
sable necessity”) converse with me on “sundry grave mat- 
The “ grave matters” referred to were of no less importance 
m the transfer of Mr. Livingston, then Secretary of State, to 
2, the elevation of Mr. McLane to the Department of State 
1—last, though by no means least, either in point of importance 
s estimation or in respect to the aggravated difficulties which 
ar se own around the subject by his views in respect to it—the 
jomtment of a new Secretary of the Treasury to supply the 
y that would be created by his own advancement. The two 
#% movements had ceased to be open questions and waited only 
: expedient moment for their execution. The last was one of 
ay as well as difficulty, in consequence of the relation 
hich the Administration stood towards the Bank of the United 
s and the peculiar duty that the Secretary of the Treasury” 
ld in all probability, be called upon to perform. Mr. McLane 
enly in favour of the recharter of the Bank—had been op- 
9 the President’s veto and was equally decided against the 
t great step the President had in view—that of substituting 
8 of the State Banks for the Bank of the United States as the 
sitory of the public revenues. He came to New York and we 
e had the interview he desired. 
; “Opinions in respect to the best course to be pursued were com- 
i cated to him without reserve. These were that Mr. Taney 
Id be appointed Secretary of the Treasury and Mr. Butler At- 
y General in his place, both of which appointments were fi- 
2 after the President had been subjected to a world of 
le by the intermediate selection of Mr. Duane’ for the first 
2 preference I expressed for the selection of Taney for 
Tre sury is alluded to im the letter from Mr. McLane to me 
a follows, though not in express terms. He opposed it at our 
+ Baward 
“MS. V, p. 185 


= 'B. Taney, of Maryland, and Benjamin F. Butler, of New York. 
; J. Duane. 


33° —yoL 22038 


594. AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


4 


interview with much earnestness and it will be seen that he repeats 
that opposition emphatically in his letter, holding up to me, and 
through me to the President, nothing less than his own retirement 
from public life as the possible consequence of Mr. Taney’s introduc- 
tion into the Treasury Department. 
That Mr. McLane determined to bring Mr. Duane into that depart- 
ment of the Government by which alone the views of the President 
in respect to the change of the place of deposit could be carried 
into effect and that he entered upon the accomplishment of that 
object having good reasons to believe that Mr. Duane’s views con- 
formed or might be brought to conform to his own, no one familiar 
with the events of that time will now affect to doubt. It must be 
admitted that this attempt was a bold one, whatever may be thought 
of its discretion with reference to its ultimate consequences to him= 
self. That he succeeded in it, is strongly illustrative of the in 
fatuation by which both the President and myself were infected 
in respect to him and of the consequent influence he was capa of e 
of exercising over us. I have said that in my opinion there is ni 
reasonable ground to doubt that the appointment of Duane was his 
deliberate scheme; nevertheless it may be now perhaps made a 
question—having reference only to the evidence produced—whether 
the suggestion of Mr. Duane’s name originated with him or witl 
the President. I give the evidence on both sides that the reader may 
form his own judgment. In the letter which follows from the Pres: | 
dent he authorizes that latter supposition, whilst in a subsequent 
ter to me, which is published, speaking of the removal of the de 
its he alludes to the appointment of Duane as made at Mr. McLa 
instance, and complains that he should have urged it with a kno 
edge that his (Duane’s) opinions were against the measure. 
Blair on the same side, in his letter of the date, says, “ 
General Jackson, told me positively that Mr. McLane had slap 
his hand on his thigh after canvassing other Pennsylvanians, 
named Duane as the very man for the place.” Mr. McLane’s 
ters to me which follow can scarcely fail to strengthen belie 
that as the most probable conclusion. The motive for sup 
ing the fact that the appointment had that origin was to pi 
jealousy in the Cabinet which would be likely to arise from 
great an accession, to the influence of one of its members, and 
have before seen the principle by which the General felt hi 
at liberty to be governed in assuming the responsibility of 
who acted under him when he thought the public interest wo 
promoted by his doing so. As in the cases of his undivided ass 
tion of the appointment of Randolph, and of the instructions to | 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 595 


McLane on the subject of the West Indies, he chose to place the 
responsibility where the Constitution placed it, and where, more- 
a his military training had taught him to think it ought always to 
rest. 

# FRoM PRESIDENT JACKSON. 

e 
z WASHINGTON, Nov. 25th, 1832. 

My Dear Snr, 

_ Iam in receipt of your confidential letter of the 22nd instant and have read 

‘it with attention and duly noted its contents as well as those of its enclosure. 
Jd had prepared and submitted to my Cabinet the outlines of my Message to 
' ‘Congress before the receipt of your views but was gratified to find that they 

‘corresponded precisely. This, from what I knew before of your opinions, I ex- 

pected and the receipt of yours only confirmed them. 

On the Naval Office I will take an order in all [?] December. In the mean time, 
| as I am aware that it is proper that your name should not be introduced in any 
_ Way and as our enemies in the Senate may call for recommendations, would it 
not be well to get Cambreleng, White, Marcy, and Dudley to present Throop 
| for that appointment; many others are strongly presented for that office. 

__ I was anxious that the arrangement in the Cabinet should have taken place 
_ before the meeting of Congress and the Minister have been at Paris ’ere this. 
Now it must be postponed until after Congress meets, and on presenting Mr. 

Livingston to the Senate a fit person must be selected for the Treasury. 

_ I have been passing in review Pennsylvania, first, then Virginia and all the 
South and as yet have not been able to make a selection. This I find difficult. 
1 There are jealousies (about men) in Virginia that must not be aroused; and, 
passing over the South and viewing our present situation, it will not be prudent 
to weaken ourselves in the Senate. The character must be one of high standing 

in the Nation; he ought to be in constitutional and political views with us— 
i opposed to the power of Congress to establish corporations anywhere except in 
| the District of Columbia and opposed to the power of creating corporations 
\ the Government becoming a partner or shareholder; be heartily with us in 
| reducing the revenue to the wants of the Government and yielding to our own 
labour, and productions that are means of national defense, such protection 
| as will place them on a fair competition with foreign labour;—a man of 
b iieerity combined with talent and a disposition to harmonize and unite in the 
_ administration for the benefit of the whole Union, extending justice to every 
) part of it. Help me to search out such a character—or as near it as can be 

obtained, and write me soon. 
ie Your triumph is complete and the faction in the Senate condemned by an 
overwhelming majority of the people. You will get all the votes of the South 
‘and West except Kentucky and South Carolina—the vote in No. Carolina is 
a large majority—in Virginia, overwhelming; your triumph, I repeat, is hon- 
orable to the people and must be entirely satisfactory to you. We have only 
| now to go on and continue faithful to the people and realize in our actions that 
confidence they have so liberally reposed. 

Intense labour has brought back occasional headache.—My health is other- 
wise good and I trust Providence will prolong my days a little while and make 
me an instrument in His hands to put down the present excitement and restore 
harmony to the nation. 


596 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


~ Mrs. D—— is a little unwell and confined. All your other friends 
and unite in good wishes and kind salutations. ae 
Believe me your friend 5 

‘ ANDREW JACKSON 

Martin VAN Buren Esq. 
P. S.—A happy thought has occurred: William J. Duane, in whom 
confidence can be placed, flashed into my mind, after writing the aboy 
having named him to Mr. McLane he assures me that his talents in every 
are suited to this situation. This selection puts out of our way° many 
’ that would have embarrassed us—and will have a tendency to harmonize 
sylvania and keep her with the Democracy of the Union. Pennsylvania 6 
serves this notice from me. She has supported me from first to last alth 
differed with her on the American System. Duane is competent and he b 
with him a great weight of moral character; it is going to the people 
agents; he is warmly attached to you and to my administration; having ce 
ducted Girard’s business for a long time he is well acquainted with fin: 
and commercial law. In short, when we reflect, he is, as Pennsylvania 
serves the office, the very person who ought to be selected. Let me hear froi 
you. Excuse this scrawl—I have no time to copy. , 


From Louris McLANE. 


WASHINGTON, Nov. 26, 1 
My pDEArR SR, 


The President appeared satisfied after conversation on my return from 
York to acquiesce in the propriety or rather necessity of postponing the 
templated changes here until the spring; tho’ it was obvious he was not 
gether happy or at ease in the unsettled state of his mind: and the matt 
been since more than once recurred to. 

I found also that in my absence the idea of changing from the Navy or 
of A. Gen’! to the T. had been suggested to him or had passed through his m 
but without receiving with any definite approbation. On the contrary th 
mer expedient had not been viewed with any favour and received stil 
after what he heard from me. I did not feel authorized after your injw 
to me, to suggest the view you had partially meditated, and as he did no’ 
self entertain any distinct idea, I may perhaps have been less inclined © 
from considerations of which you are fully aware. My main inducement, | 
ever, for silence was your injunction and what I understood from the 
dent to be his determination not to include New York in his arrang 


ticable, in both which he mentioned to me he had your concurrence in a 
but recently received. x 
His preference for Penna. was decidely declared on many sceonaen a 
others that he believed he could thereby more effectually gratify his vie 
wishes towards yourself. It seemed moreover that by going to Penn. he 
avoid the conflicting pretensions of his friends in the South and more r 
reconcile Forsyth to a longer continuance in the Senate where he be! 
important to retain him. 4 
He believed also that in consequence of the opposition of some of his ¢a 
points of administration to the policy of Penn. past and to come, he m 
effectually preserve his future weight in the party and in the supp 
administration by making the selection from that state; and he also f 


°MS. V, p. 190. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 597 
he early and steadfast support given him by that state especially in the last 
aggle and in defiance of the veto &c, &c gave her claims upon his gratitude, 
id that he should feel better satisfied in yielding to them if a proper man 
d be found within her limits. I confess that these views met my concur- 
rence other things being equal, and there being no superior obstacle. 

‘Looking to Penna. Dallas, Wilkins, Buchanan, and Wm. J. Duane severally 
ed in review and to each of the three former he had what appeared to be 
erable objections, both personal and political which it is presumed you 
readily and fully comprehend. Wm. J. Duane is a warm and active 
d of yours, was among the earliest to espouse your cause, and has been 
ere and efficient in his endeavours to divert the electoral vote of Penn. to 
ur support. He is and has been an early uniform friend, personal and politi- 
al, Of the P. and from his youth a uniform and popular member of the old 
nocracy in opposition to all its enemies. His purity and integrity of char- 
is without reproach, and his devotion and fidelity might be relied upon in 
and every crisis. His capacity, education, business habits and financial 
gwledge are said to be unquestionable and that he had for years before Mr. 
rard’s death managed his Banking concerns and business generally. The 
ident adverted to a great variety of other considerations which had weight 
fh him, and the only objection which I could conceive to the selection was 
e possibility of its interference with another plan, which however I did not 
at liberty to suggest, and a doubt that he was not sufficiently prominent 
a public man which I did suggest. It was evident, however, that the Presi- 
ts mind had taken a decided bent and even settled down in his favour; 
he said he would write to you, if he were at liberty to express my concurrence. 
this I assented and promised to write myself, which I now do. He desired 
write to Duane; bus I determined on reflection not to do so; but hearing 
afternoon that Duane is in town [I have written to the President, not being 
to get out of my office, requesting him if Mr. Duane should call on him not 
ention the subject until I can see him. On my way home I shall call, and 
that nothing definitive will be done until he hears from you. After that 
view I will write you again, if I am in time for the mail. I am, both on 
u and political grounds, so thoroughly satisfied of the propriety of this 
fion that I should clinch it at once and irrevocably but for an apprehension 
it may create some disappointment in your quarter. I hope you need no 
ance of my determination to promote Mr. Butler? to anything; tho’ I con- 
that the means you hinted to me would be gall and wormwood; and, I 
kly tell you, rob me of almost every inducement to continue in public 


alienate me in fact or in feeling from the President and yourself, towards 
I feel that I am incapable of indifference or ingratitude. If Mr. B. could 
ced in the T. I should be fully satisfied; or if Mr. T.* could go abroad and 
accomplish your own view, I should be even better satisfied. However, 
nd one other act of patronage has given me more solicitude than I am 
now to express, and more than all the honors of Cabinet place will ever 


believe I have now given you a full view of the whole ground as far as I 
and it, and which the P. said he did not doubt would be satisfactory 


1George M. Dallas, William Wilkins, and James Buchanan, 
2Benjamin F. Butler. 
SRoger B. Taney. 


598 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


I ought to add that no immediate change is contemplated, and that there 
the chance of events still remains. 
I am, my dear Sir 
Very faithfully yours ;- 
L. McLane 
Hon. M. Van Buren ! 
°To THE PRESIDENT. 4 
ALBANY, Nov. 29th, 1832. 
My Dear Sir, J 
I received your letter at the moment of leaving New York and have : 
morning been favored with a very sensible and dispassionate one from 0 
friend McLane upon the same subject,—as I am very busy with my friends you 
must allow me to answer both by this. I have fully considered your sugges i 
in regard to Mr. Duane, and do not hesitate to say that the measure prop I 
has more advantages, and is freer from objections than any which I haye beer 
able to hit upon. His location and personal and political character are pre 
cisely every thing we could wish, and the absence of that sort of previous 
notoriety as a public man which is generally considered indispensable, 
which is so often the result of accident, is, I think, more than made up by | 
consideration you suggest,—going to the people for agents, ‘ 
The only point about it which is not so clear to me, because I have had n 
opportunity for judging, is, the question of capacity. Mr. McLane and your 
self have had opportunities and are not in danger of making a mistake upol 
that point. I had thought of suggesting the propriety of bringing Mr. Butlk 
into the office of Attorney General if Mr. Taney could be provided for in 
manner more acceptable to himself; but on my return to this place, I find : ha 
influenced by that never failing good sense which keeps Mr. Butler from beit 
led astray by the partiality of his friends or of the public, he prefers to ren 
where he is, at the head of his profession, and completing a suitable pro 
for his family.: I think I would not let the matter come out in ad 
Don’t forget to send for Forsyth and put him at his ease. I thank you for 
attention to my friend Throop. Judge Marcy will attend to what you sug; 
Remember me affectionately to all the members of your family. I since 
hope Mrs. D. has recovered. Show this to Mr. McLane. . > 
If I do not say anything about the signal triumph I have, through your it 
strumentality and the kindness of my countrymen, obtained over my enemi 
you must not suppose that I think the less of it. The mail is closing and 
must do the like. 
Very truly yours, 
M. Van Bu 
P. S.—I last evening consulted in confidence my friends Marey, Wri 
Flagg, Croswell and Butler and they concur fully. It is not a little si 
that this name should have flashed upon your mind, as it did upon mine, ; 
will recollect, in our walk upon the Terrace, for the place he now holds. 


Mr. McLane’s wishes were gratified on all points. Mr. Livin; 
was removed out of his way by the Mission to France, hii 
promoted to the office of Secretary of State, his friend, Duane, 1 
appointed Secretary of the Treasury, and Woodbury aa the mode 
and ingenuous Taney were suffered to remain where they s 
I will not say the claims to promotion of the two latter were 


= 


° MS. V, p. 195. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 599 


rificed to Mr. McLane’s prejudices for that would perhaps be an 
expression too strong for the occasion, and rather an awkward one 
for me to employ as I was made a party to what was done. 
_ A word or two here in explanation of the allusions in the post- 
script of my letter. 
_ The rejection in the Senate of the nomination of Stephen Simpson 
as one of the Commissioners under the French Treaty was, if not 
the first, among the first instances of similar proceedings. It oc- 
"curred at a moment when the President’s mind was greatly disturbed 
by other causes and before he had become accustomed to the exercise 
_ of Senatorial supervision in the way in which it was on that occasion 
exerted. Yet new in the discharge of his executive dutes, the action 
_ of the Senate, without enquiring as to the grounds upon which the 
“nomination had been made or assignment of any reasons for its 
‘rejection, seemed to him designedly disrespectful. Looking upon 
it as an attempt on the part of the Senate to deter him from the per- 
“formance of his duties by making him feel the extent of its powers, 
he determined at the instant to renominate Simpson, and to send 
to that body the recommendations upon which he had selected him 
_ with a respectful request to be informed of the nature of its ob- 
jections. I arrived at the Executive Mansion a few moments after 
the Secretary of the Senate had left him and found him in the East 
_ Room, in which there were also at the moment several other persons, 
' whom curiosity had drawn to inspect an apartment which had ac- 
| ‘quired much notoriety during the Presidential canvass, and in whose 
_ presence he spoke of the transaction with his usual unreserve and 
| with more than usual excitement. Anxious to be relieved from their 
| presence I raised a window opening upon the terrace and proposed 
| a stroll to which he assented. However excusable he might be in 
believing that a majority of the Senate were more influenced by 
‘their hostility to him in the act he complained of than by a sense 
of public duty he was wrong in assuming that they had gone be- 
yond the regular exercise of their constitutional functions or that 
he would be justifiable in putting to them the interrogatory he pro- 
| posed, and perceiving that he was in danger of exposing to his 
opponents what a large portion of the public and not a few of 
“his friends conceived to be his weakest side, I exerted myself to the 
/ utmost to divert him from his purpose. 
_ My long service in the Senate enabled me to bring to his notice 
Several cases in which partisan majorities had pursued a course 
equally exceptionable during the administration of some of his 
predecessors without being noticed in the way he proposed by any 
of them, save perhaps, on one occasion by Mr. Adams, on which 
he himself was one of the offending Senators. Our walk commenced 


ame 
600 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Be 


in the afternoon and continued till it was dark without interrup 
although I saw gentlemen approaching us who were turned 
by the manifest earnestness of our conversation. He listened 
me with uniform respect and indulgence but, for a long time, without 
the slightest indication of a willingness to change his purpose and 
I have not forgotten his energy and emphasis at one moment when, 
arresting his steps and turning towards me he said “TI tell you, Mr. 
Van Buren, we shall never have peace with these men until they a 
made to understand the character of Andrew Jackson better the n 
they now do.” I suggested the names of several individuals 
proper to be sent in but without effect, until a chance allusion from 
him to the early struggles of the old Republican party, whilst he 
was a Member of Congress, brought suddenly to my mind the favour- 
able opinion he had often expressed to me of the conduct, at th 
period, of the then redoubtable conductor of the “ Aurora ”—Wi 
Duane, and the disposition evinced by the General to befriend 
whenever a suitable opportunity might offer. I was not personall 
acquainted with his son, William J. Duane, but knew enough 0: 
his character and standing in his profession to feel convinced that 
his appointment would be a good one, and proposed his name with 
a reference to what had passed between us in regard to the fatieg or 
The favourable impression made by the suggestion was at onc 
apparent. There seemed to be something® in the idea of sending 
to the federalists in the Senate the name of a son of William Dua né 
which divested his acquiesence in the rejection of Simpson of ey er’ 
appearance of yielding to their hostility and, in the sequel reconciled 
him to the abandonment of a design to which he had before some 
what pertinaciously clung. Accordingly he invited me into his offic 
and prepared a new nomination to that effect which was confirmec 
by the Senate. I spoke of this affair more than once to Mr. Me 4an 
as I did frequently to others. Whether it furnished a cue to tl ’ 
former in the consultations preceding the appointment of Dua 
to the Treasury I am not, of course, able to say. 4 F 
To return from this digression—at the period at which we hz 
now arrived the next of the great measures of President Jacks 
administration, for some time meditated, was brought to its — 
summation. I allude to that familiarly known as the “ Remoy. 0 
the Deposits.” Mr. McLane had thrown his official shield aroun 
the Bank in his first annual report upon the finances. Of that d 
ment he thus wrote to me at London, in his letter of the 6th of 
cember, 1831: b 
You will not approve of this report most probably—unless you purge 01 
mind, not of your democracy, but of your party prejudices. If you take it up | 


° MS. V, p. 200. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN : 601 


1e spirit of a patriot you will bless me for it. I feel as you may suppose 
at solicitude but am not without confidence in success— 


And in that of the 12th,: 


I send, by this opportunity, addressed to you, a few copies of the annual re 
port for some of my friends in England, which, if it is not against your con- 
Science, I will thank you to cause to be forwarded. 


‘Mr. McLane never acted against the principles by which he knew 
resident Jackson intended to be guided in the administration of the 
overnment without being sensible of the pain it would give me, but 
e trusted to my partiality for him and my good temper, and under- 
stood his ground well. He knew that in this case his course was 
inst the earnest desires of the President, and, as in all his under- 
ings of that character, he failed—the country deciding them all 
gainst him. He remained nevertheless a prominent member of the 
dministration tho’ a marked monument of the forbearance of its 
upporters, and, strange as it may seem, he lost no ground in the per- 
sonal regards of the President or myself, towards whom he assures 
me in one of the preceding letters, when advocating the appointment 
sf Duane, that he felt himself “ incapable of indifference or ingrati- 
‘nde 2 

__ Experience however seemed to have exerted no influence upon his 
isposition to meddle in the disturbing questions that related to the 
k. The removal of the deposits gave rise to the second great 
gle on the part of the Government to confine that institution to 
gehts and duties. In point of efficiency the movement which 

ceded and caused that struggle was not a jot behind the veto. In- 

ent and sensible observers of the progress of events not inap- 

lately compared it to General Jackson’s night attack upon the 
ay’s lines on the 25th of December, preliminary to the Battle of 
8th of January before New Orleans. The justice of that opinion 

the principles upon which that important measure rested will be 


=% 
> 


Me, on our Eastern trip, in regard to this important question 
brought with him some rough notes of the arguments in favour 
le measure which was finally incorporated in the paper read by 
to his Cabinet on the 18th of September.? These he delivered to 
his arrival at New York and Mr. Kendall, the special agent of 
ry, sent me a full statement of what was desired and of 
t had been, and could, as he thought, be done with the State 


speaks of this paper as having been constructed at the Rip Raps and after- 
nitted to the revision of Mr. Taney. This is doubtless right but the notes 
to here were nevertheless used at the Rip Raps. 


_ 


602 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. af 


Banks to promote the object in view. McLane accompa 
ident as far as New York from which place he returned to. 
ton leaving in the hands of Major Donelson the following 
me: “7 
June 4th, 188 
My Dear Sr, 
Before you finally dispose of the deposit question I beseech you to read 
tentively the paper I prepared for the President in which I have endeay 
faithfully to trace the effects of the proposed change under the circumstay 
on the public service and upon the Country. God knows I have no love for 
present Bank and my opinions are the result of my honest convictions of ri 
and propriety. Something, undoubtedly, is due to the new Secretary who s 
not be driven to the step at least before the Senate have acted upon his no! 
tion. Therefore if anything be done let it be postponed “till the Session 
the President enforce his views in a Message. 
Yours faithfully, “4 
Lar 
The grounds upon which the measure was to be placed wer 
considered and discussed between the President and myself o 
journey and Mr. Kendall’s plan revised as far as the informat a 
our possession allowed. Secretaries Cass and Woodbury acec my : 
us and were made aware of what was going on but were not ¢ 
upon to commit themselves to the approval of it. My own ce ur 
respect to this matter was, as usual, made the subject of mist 
sentation. I have brought together the entire correspond nce 
tween the President and saycele relating to it which is subr 
without comment. Every feeling I entertained about it is t 
compressed. If I can lay my hands upon it, which is not t 
at this moment, I will add a corroborative statement sent to: m 
the President whilst I was a candidate for office and was assai 
regard to this matter by prejudiced persons ignorant of 
Our Eastern tour was suddenly cut short at Concord, New I 
shire by the severe indisposition of the President, and we z 
appearance before the Secretaries of State and Treasury, 3 
and Duane, at Washington, quite unexpectedly. 
The President had in the course of our journey apprised th 
ter of his general purpose and as soon as he recovered s 
from his attack, which was a very severe one and for forty-ei 
seemed to threaten his life, he sent for Mr. Duane to enter ¥ 
upon the consideration of the final instructions to be give 
Kendall. On our way from the President’s bed room to 
ing room we met the Secretary and were both struck with 1 
and emaciated appearance, which, as we had not heard of b Lis 
ill we at once attributed to distress of mind caused by obs acl 
us unknown, interposed to the performance of his a 
subject under consideration. I well remember the kind 


— 


_ AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 603 
> President took both his hands in his own and gently 
‘him for coming out in his actual state of health, advised 
a to return to his house and neither to think more of the deposits 
to come to him again until he was perfectly well. Mr. Duane 
ly availed himself of this advice and further action upon this 
was postponed for some days. The incidents that followed— 
anes agreement° to do what the President desired or to 
his refusal, on the return of the latter from the Rip Raps, 
either; his removal; the appointment of Mr. Taney in his 
id the order directing future receipts-of the public moneys 
uced in the selected State Banks—are elsewhere and in vari- 
s referred to.t 
been stated that when the President interposed his veto to 
< he found himself in that great Act, which cannot fail to 
and gratefully remembered by the American people, opposed 
us Secretaries of State, Treasury and War,—Livingston, 
ae and Cass. These gentlemen avowed their disapproval of 
resident’s course and stood aloof from his proceedings. He 
through with them with the aid of officers occupying inferior 
in his Cabinet, and obtained a decisive triumph in the elec- 
that took place in the course of a few months. When he super- 
d the Bank as a depository of public monies he was again opposed 
) Seeretaries of State, Treasury and War. The action of the 
Seeretary of the Treasury being indispensably necessary to the exe- 
mton of his determination, that refractory officer was removed 
st Messrs. McLane and Cass remained unqualified in their oppo- 
n to the removal of the deposits and the former, as before, open 
active. These gentlemen were not indeed, could not have been 
3 to the feelings to which their position gave rise, or un- 
of their duties in respect to them. On the morning suc- 
the dismissal of Mr. Duane and the appointment of Mr. 
4y, Viz: on the 24th September, 1833, and again on the fol- 
morning, Messrs. McLane and Cass called on the President 
d held with him the conversations detailed immediately after they 
ft him in these admirable letters: 


FEOM THE PRESIDENT. « 
September 24th, 1833. 
intend to have written you again so soon. But this morning I was 


by Mr. Louis McLane and Gov. Cass, and, in a friendly manner, they 
the delicacy of their situation—that the question made before the 


draft of Van Buren’s defense of Jackson’s course in dismissing Duane 
of the deposits is in the Van Burem Pzpers under date of Feb., 1834. 


604 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


“public would be a party question—that they as well as myself woul 
assailed—they for remaining in my Cabinet when it will be known that t 
were opposed to the measure, &c. &c. to all which I answered, kindly 
firmly, that I could not see how their feelings or delicacy could be involv 
the truth could be told,—that Mr. McLane had given me his full opinion on 
subject with frankness—that he and myself had differed in opinion—that I 
taken all responsibility upon myself—that I wished no support from eith 
when their principles and opinions were not in accord: whether this satis 
them I can not say; I hope it has and it surely must unless they believe 
when it becomes a party question they must, for principle and opinions’ s 
take open ground with the opposition—for I have declared to them, fra 
and truly, that all I want of them is to attend to the duties of their respecti 
departments, in the manner heretofore done. I hope they will remain bu 
it so happens that they do not the question arises—whom shall I select for 
State, War and for Attorney General? they must be all known to be righ 
principle and good and true men. —Not men who differ on the great leadin 1g 
measures and believe that they have a right to transact the business of t the 
department adversely to what the Executive believes the good of the countr 
and prosperity of all require. Give me your views on this subject by th 
earliest moment in your power. I enclose this under cover to Mr. Cambreleng 

My night-fevers still continue but the press of business keeps me up @ 
the day. rr 
In haste your friend ey 

ANDREW JACKSON 


q 


MARTIN VAN BUREN 7 
P. S—I hope for the best—but let what will come the sun will conte e 
rise in the East and set in the West—and I trust in a kind Providence to 
and direct me and in a virtuous people’s support. 2 


WasHineton, Sept. 25, 1 833. 
My Dear Sr, 
I have this moment had an interview with Mr. McLane and with Gov. Os 
and I have the pleasure to inform you that we are all united in our co 
friendship and confidence which on my part was never impaired. I have 
fered more in my feelings in this great national matter than in any per 
my eventful life. I had to struggle with my private friendship opposed 
public duty—but I could not struggle long. My God told me the measure 
right—that the Morals of the People and the perpetuity of our republicait 
ernment required it—and, as excruciating as it was to my private frien 
and feelings, my public duty required my prompt action. I performed 
it is the first pleasure in my life that I can communicate to you that our friel 
McLane and Cass remain where they now are—harmoniously. 
The system will succeed well and I am assured to day by one here 
friendly to the Bank that nine-tenths of the people will sustain me— 
disclosures are so obnoxious to all principles of morality, so inconsis 
the course expected from the Bank, and for which it was chartered, t! 
honest man but must justify my course towards it: when its former 
speak thus we can have no fears of the result of public opinion. Let m 
from you. Mr. Cambreleng says you will be in New York by the time th 
reach you. I address it to you there. 
Your friend cs 
ANDREW JACKSO! 
Martin VAN BUREN, 5 
Vice President. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 605 


A concerted and formal call by the two high officers named and 
mm such a mission, immediately after the elevation of Mr. Taney,— 
entleman shown to have been especially unacceptable to one of 
n—before he had taken any steps towards carrying out the 
ident’s policy and at a moment of so great excitement, might 
ell have been looked upon by a severely chafed Chief Magistrate as 
designed to drive him from the performance of his duty. 
‘What the result of such a suspicion on the part of the General 
ld have been no one who-understood his character can doubt. 
withstanding my experience of his general calmness and self pos- 
ion on trying occasions, I yet claimed some merit for having 
ed the exercise of those inestimable qualities in this instance by 
ewarning him of the trial to which his patience and indulgent 
it might be subjected, as will appear in the extract which follows. 
Sept. 1833, whilst passing a few days with my old friend Gov. 
gan Lewis, knowing that the proceedings in respect to the Gov- 
bment deposits were about to be brought to a head and always 
e to McLane’s interest, I wrote the President a letter from which 
s following is an extract and which was in furtherance of what 
[ had said to him before we parted at Washington—he for the 
p-Raps and I for the north: 


* * * Allow me to say a word to you in regard to our friend McLane. 
sand I differ toto coelo about the Bank and I regret to find that upon almost 
public questions the bias of our early feelings is apt to lead us in different 
tions. Still, I entertain the strongest attachment for him and have been so 
in the habit of interceding in his behalf that I cannot think of giving it up, 
mg as I have it in my power to serve him and his. From what passed 
een us at Washington I think it possible that he may (if Mr. Duane re- 
ns) think himself obliged to tender his resignation also, which, if accepted, 
d inevitably ruin him. Your friends would be obliged to give him up 
ically, and when stript of influence his former federal friends would as- 
edly visit their past mortification at his success upon him in the shape of 
tions at his fall. I am quite sure that if he tenders his resignation he 
vertheless be anxious to remain if he can do so with honor, and if you 
d say in reply, that you will accept his resignation if he insists upon it 
at you confide in him, notwithstanding the difference between you upon 
int, and that if he could consistently remain in the administration you 
be gratified, I think he would be induced to withdraw it. 1 could not 
you to change your course for anybody but it appears to me that you 
E go thus far consistently with what is due to all parties. I think I cannot 
‘istaken in believing that he told me explicitly that he did not know Mr. 
‘8 views in regard to the Deposits when he was selected. When at Wash- 
mm I informed you that I had thought of Mr. Taney for the Treasury but 
made the suggestion in consequence of its not meeting with Mr. Mc- 
concurrence. On accidently reading since a letter which he wrote me 
the subject of Mr. Duane’s appointment I find it stated that he had not 
oned my Suggestion in regard to Mr. Taney to you in pursuance of my 
; that he should not do so until I could ascertain whether Mr. Butler 


° MS. V, p. 210. 


606 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


would take the office of Att’y General, if you should think proper to offer 
him, which he declined and consequently nothing more was said of the othe 
idea. Although this had escaped me I presume it must be so. * * ** 


The following was my reply to the General’s two letters given 
above. The Grima has been obtained from Mr. Blair with whon 
he left his papers. 


= 


New York, Sept. 27th, 1833. 

My DEAR Sm, 
Your letter of the 24th was handed me by Mr. Cambreleng at the moment of 
stepping into the carriage to visit the Town of Brooklyn upon the invitation ¢ 
its trustees, and I embrace the first moment of my return to reply to it. Y¥ 
have done all that was required of you in regard to the suggestions of 
friends McLane and Cass. If after that they choose to go, so it must be. 
course cannot be altered out of mere personal regard to any one. I do ne 
however believe that such will be the case, but if it be, I think I ought to com 


instead of making the suggestions you desire. I shall hold myself subject t 
your wishes. : ‘a 

Your letter of the 25th is this moment received after I had written thus 
I sincerely rejoice that matters have turned as they have. Our friends 
soon see what a precipice they have escaped. Public sentiment is unpre¢ 
dentedly strong in your favor. I dined yesterday with a party risi 
100, in King’s county, composed of the Senate of the State, now sitting | 
Court of Errors, and of gentlemen of different polities: After several 0 
toasts, Dr. Elwus of Fort Hamilton gave the following:—‘The Oracle 
Delphos said make gold thy weapon and thou wilt conquer all. Andrew Tac 
son has said make honesty thy weapon,’—and I never knew a toast recely 
with more rapturous applause, long continued and several times revived. — 
this is probably the first direct test of the kind, and the company was respé 
table and of different politics, I think it of sufficient importance to mention 
to you. 

I think Gov. Woodbury is right in his opinion that the Attorney Gen’] ou 
to come from the South. You recollect what passed between us in reg 
our friend Forsyth. He once (long ago) told me he would not think of 2 
ing the appointment of Attorney General, and I do not know what e fe 
views he recently expressed upon another subject would have upon hin 
regard to this; but I feel so deeply how well he behaved for us all that 
not think of suffering a single opportunity to pass without doing all in 
power to serve him. If, for any reason, he should be out of the way I § 
like Judge Parker? right well, if he is a speaking man. You will hav 
enough to cause enquiries to be made upon the point. You will recolle 
that I spoke to you of Judge Ruffin,’ of North Carolina. You can cause the 
enquiries to be made as to him so that you may finally act with a full vi ev 
the whole matter. 

There is one point you may depend upon, my dear Sir, and that is that there 
is an extreme anxiety on the part of the Democracy of the Country—your SI 
and support—that you should infuse a little more of their good spi ey i 
your Cabinet than it now possesses. Recent events have given increased it n 


1 September 11, 1833, in the Jackson Papers; a copy of this extract is in th 2 
Buren Papers. 4 

2 Richard Elliott Parker. 

3Thomas Ruffin. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN, 607 


st to this point, and the impression is extensive that if it had been heretofore 
otherwise in that respect things would have been better. Our quondam friend, 
Duane was either beyond or behind the age. Do not be in haste and do me the 
favour to remember me kindly to all your household. I hope to be with you on 
the 20th without fail. } 


I am very truly yours, 


M. VAN Buren. 
Norr.—Having occasion some days since to write to Mr. F. P. Blair and 
knowing the close intimacy that existed between him and General Jackson as 
well as the unlimited confidence reposed by the latter in his integrity and 
ruthfulness, I suggested to him the propriety of communicating any incidents 
passages in their intercourse which he might think of sufficient interest and 
ilst engaged in the revision of these pages, I received a letter from him (in 
rt fulfilment of my request) which relates to the period and events here 
lescribed and which I give in his own words—suppressing unnecessary names: 


From F. P. Buarr,, Esq. 


SItver Sprine, 18 Nov. 1859 
* * * There is a circumstance connected with the Bank panic tending to 
racterize the principle actors of the time which coming immediately under 
notice may be worth mentioning to you. 
hile Kendall was on his mission, beseeching the State Banks to receive 
osits, I spent the month of August and part of September with the Presi- 
t at the Rip Raps—our families occupying the cottages on that pile of rocks 
i Hampton Roads. Biddle had planned a most insidious mode of reaching him 
| this isolated spot, to which, for successive years he had retired for repose. 
he Old Chief had a little hut on the highest point of the Rocks looking out 
to the Ocean, where we went to open his mails and talk over matters, and it 
might almost literally be said to be the point at which Biddle levelled a can- 
jonade from every quarter of the Union. He had organized a sort of siege 
inst the General, who had hardly time, like an old Eagle, to fold his wings 
for repose on his Rock when missiles ° from eyery quarter and especially from 
|the cities were poured in upon him in the shape of letters entreating a surren- 
de of the design of removing the Deposits. The peculiarity of this struggle 
was that all the volleys poured in upon him came under cover of the names of 
friends; was panic-Master for Richmond, remained at 
shington, & thence he was plied with accounts of the terrible ruin impend- 
travelled West and from him, at every stage, came news of the 
fesses of his friends, but from Nashville a cry came of unusual consterna- 
Young , for whom the General had cultivated a fondness, got up 
9 etutions among one portion of his friends, and among others almost a meeting 
n favour of another Bank. In a word no man was ever so overwhelmed with 
a deluge of griefs since the time of the forty days deluge. The old man 
aid to me from time to time, as some shocking defection aroused him, “ Mr. 
» Providence may change me but it is not in the power of man to do it.” 
m ember two instances when he was particularly oppressed by such appeals: 
was 2 voluminous argumentative display of coming disasters from an old 
see friend who had moved to Indiana and represented that state in Con- 
; Another was from his best friend of the Jefferson Era, Nathaniel Macon. 
ro lese he dictated elaborate letters in reply, written in such a strain that 


Ee ee 
° MS, Book VI, p. 1. 


608 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. = 


he was sure, if they retained the personal kindness they professed, they 
give them to the public in his vindication, as it was intimated they migh 
given if they thought necessary. But they never published them. In 
letters I have no doubt the facts mentioned to you in my last letter and 
others not remembered are shown. 
It was during this siege of the Rip Raps that the general dictated 
original of “the paper read to the Cabinet,” which was afterwards read 
Taney and given a calm judicial aspect, instead of that of a combative Bulle 
There is an anecdote connected with this paper which I am not sure f | 
told you, but it is worth preserving, at least in the shape of a letter. a. 
After the paper was read, but before publication, came to me, wit 
his solemn face unusually elongated, and said he was sorry it would 4 
both Cass and McLane out of the Cabinet. I thought that would be ! 
harm done, but he deprecated repeated Cabinet explosions as making 
against the General the charge of a belligerent, unruly temper &c. &e. 
said that McLane had resolved to go out of the Cabinet, and Cass had 2 
to go with him rather than have it understood, by tacit acquiescence, h 
agreed to the paper: “Jt did not contain his opinions and he ought no 
be held responsible for them.” I answered that it was not probable th ] 
General wished to shift his burden on Cass: “ Well,” said he, “if yo 
speak to the General and he will say so much in the paper Cass will let Mc 
go alone out of the Cabinet or he will be compelled to stay.” When I re 
this conversation to the General he smiled at the suggestion that Cass 
to bear the responsibility of his measure and said that if it were th 
necessary to escape it McLane and he might quit the Cabinet—“ he cared 
they could do no mischief in or out ;’ but he added, “I am yery willing 
the public know that I take the whole responsibility of this measure; 
Blair, I wish you would look out a place in the paper where I can pu t 
in.” I then read over his cabinet “ paper” and found out a paragraph 
this declaration might be introduced and he clapped it in, interlining or 
ing on a sentence or two to make it fit. The next morning I went to 
house with the printed paper, and Donelson being there, Taney, puti 
segar in his mouth and his feet upon the writing table, prepared to e 
first state paper in print, said “ Now, Mr. Secretary, let us hear how it 
for the public.” Donelson read on until he reached the responsibility 
when Taney stopped him with “how under heaven did that get in! 
him the story and he said, “this has saved Cass and McLane; but for i 
would have gone out and have been ruined—as it is, they will remain : 
us nfuch mischief.” No one has regretted the mistake more than mys 
I felt it with the deepest chagrin when Cass, at the Kossuth dinner ¢ 
Jackson Hall, volunteered a speech to make capital for a presidential 
tion and selected the topic of the Removal of the Deposits as his - 
extolling that act as the wisest and most heroic of the Administra 
one not in the secret could have doubted but that he was the mover 
measure in the Cabinet, so happily did he explain its propriety and ne 
and praise the wisdom that planned and the courage that dared to prop 3 
I think the Speech was printed but know not whether reported by the 
with the effrontery with which it was uttered. * * *? 


1Sep. 18, 1833. The Globe, Sep. 23, 1833. 


‘ 


CHAPTER XLI. 


The removal of the deposits was the last great public question in 
position of which Mr. McLane and myself consulted and acted 
ether though differing widely in the opinions we gave to the Presi- 
t. Others arose and were disposed of but there was no concerted 
in respect to them between us. Among the latter the subject 
claims upon France was the most prominent and deserves and 
ceive a separate notice. 

change in the bearing of our personal relations upon public 
is, by superseding [séc] what is, perhaps, my only excuse for 
space I have given them, admonishes me of the propriety of draw- 
g to a conclusion on the subject, which I shall much prefer to do as 
nasIcan. How it was that Mr. McLane convinced himself that 
- Duane’s resignation properly involved his own, or upon what 
inciple he, for many months, felt himself relieved from the impera- 
e pressure of that obligation, if any such existed, may perhaps 
known. One thing only is certain, and that is that he was, 
that gentleman’s removal, never at ease in his official seat. 
| What has already been seen the reader will not be surprised 
ar that this unsettled state of feeling led to frequent and, not 
m, to daily reiterated appeals to me for consultation with him- 
nd through me with the President in respect to his course. 
anxious notes upon this point are found among my papers. 

e latter part of February, of the Session of 1833-4, and after 
of his intended resignation had found place in the news- 
his fluctuating councils appeared to have reached a fixed con- 
and his withdrawal to have become inevitable, but the affair 
s brought to a different and amicable solution through my exer- 
Aons made effectual by the patience and generosity of the President. 
it will not escape notice that I have in the preparation of this 
work liberally resorted to familiar letters, when within my control 
n¢ en the use of them was not otherwise improper, as sources 
ation and evidence in relation to events with which they 
ntemporaneous and of which they speak. 

n addition to such weight as the degree of information and ca- 
y to appreciate the bearings of important passages in public 
r in the lives of public men possessed by the writers, and 


° MS. VI, p. 5. 


610 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. _ Ne 


the extent to which their minds may chance to have been engr 
by their subject, they have an inestimable value in their abso 
freedom from certain drawbacks to which representations m 
many years later are always exposed. However tenacious the mem 
and however honest the intention it is scarcely possible that the ree- 
ollections of any man should be entirely uninfluenced by the chan 
and changes of the intermediate period. 

These cbvious truths have been brought freshly to my mind b 
the letters from Mr. Washington Irving which I find on my f 
and which I give below. Mr. McLane had impressed Mr. I rin 
with feelings of personal regard for him similar to those entertai 
by myself, although his habitual caution may have protected 
latter from serious embarrassments such as resulted in my ¢ 
Thus influenced and anxious for the welfare of Mr. McLane’s famil 
while not insensible of the peculiarities in his temperament, M 
Irving kept a watchful eye upon his movements and freque 
invoked my good offices in his behalf. It will be seen that both ¢ 
his contemplated resignations—in September 1833 and in Febru 
1834—are spoken of in these letters, and I have obtained from 
Irving my own letter to which his last was a reply and which is al 
inserted here. 


FRoM WASHINGTON IRVING. 


WASHINGTON, Octo. Sth, 
My Dear Sir, 

I have yours of Octo. 2nd and am gratified by the clear pee me viev v 
take of the cloudy concerns of our friend McL. I am convinced that all 
say is just, and it is very much to the purport of what I stated,to 
repeated conversations. I am happy to say he left here the day befo 
terday on his excursion, in very good spirits, and I fancy his mental 
phere is relieved from the fogs and glooms that lower’d about it. He 
on Tuesday next, and after I have seen him and had a little more co 
tion with him, I shall turn my face homewards and trust to see you 
York before you set off for the South. * * * 

I have taken a family dinner with the President and have seen ni 
in an evening visit. His health is not good, and I fancy he has been 
worried of late by his Cabinet affairs; he seems anxious to have yo 
and now that he has had his “wicked will” of the bank I think y 
better be at his elbow. I have confidence in your knowledge of ch 
and hope that your opinions of Mr. [Kendall] may be correct. Many 
things are said of him, but I know how exposed men in his situation 
be misrepresented. 

I am in my old quarters in the neighborhood of the McLane’s, 
making use of a quiet nook and a little interval of leisure to exercise m 
neglected pen. It is an odd place and time for a man to amuse hi msel 
literary avocations, but it shows how little I am of a politician. 

Ever very truly yours, 
WASHINGTON Try IN 


iy 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 611 


To WASHINGTON IRVING. 


Sir: 
nowing the deep interest you take in the happiness of our friend McLane 
of his interesting family, I take pleasure in saying to you that after a 
sre trial, in which he was brought to the brink of a fatal precipice, he has 
ly determined to remain in his present station, and that under circum- 
which give, I think, the best security for its permanency and which 
if that were possible, additional credit on his best of wives. 
In great haste. 
be Very truly yours, 
- M. VAN BUREN. 
Mo h 6th, 1834. 


% . 


From WASHINGTON IRVING. 


New York, March 11th, 1834. 
ak Sir: 
letter concerning Mr. McLane is deeply interesting. I have felt great 
about him, knowing the excessively trying situation in which he was 
and the delicate and involved state of his feelings. He is entitled zo 
consideration from you all. His sacrifices of feeling must be great, yet 
tinuance in the Cabinet at this crisis is of great importance to his 
even though his arms may be tied up as to the contest in which they 
ged. It is also important to his own welfare. His retirement at this 
would be made a handle of by the opponents of the Administration, 
would be forced, in spite of himself, into a wretched collision with his 
nds. What a sorry figure is making of it—spinning out news- 
letters to swell this eternal bank theme. I have no thought of coming 
Washington at present. I am quietly settled in the bosom of my family, 
ually getting back into those literary habits which have been so long 
pted and which, after all, are most congenial to my tastes. Besides I 
0 inclination to hear any spouting on this Bank Question—I begin to 
the subject, and can hardly relish the sight of a bank note—in a little 
nothing but a hard dollar will set upon my stomach. Truly we are a 
dden country. 
| was in town the other day, looking very well, though pretending to be 
affected in purse by the shifting of the deposits. 
mber me kindly to the Major. When you see the family of the McLanes 
ay most affectionate remembrances to them. I long to hear from some 
or other of them, for I have not had any domestic news from them for 


Ever, my dear sir, 
Very truly ‘yours, 
WASHINGTON IRVING. 


‘a 


merely personal relations between Mr. McLane and myself, 
‘somewhat less familiar, continued on apparently friendly 
till towards the close of the celebrated Session of Congress 
4) when circumstances occurred which doubtless contrib- 
largely to hasten their final dissolution. These grew out of the 

es between us and France in respect to the non-payment of 


54 Fed 


612)... AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


the draft which was drawn upon the French Government under |! 
Rives’ treaty. The information of its protest arrived at Washi 
in 1834, and Mr. McLane took instant and decided ground 3 
to the course proper to be pursued by our government on the oc 
sion. Of that position and of my own in opposition to it and o 
whole matter ° I will have more to say hereafter. The question 
one which properly referred itself to the Department over which h 
presided and the course he advised was, for a season, earnestly st 
tained by the President. My strong dissent from the opinion of bot 
produced momentary embarrassments, but as between the Presiden 
and*myself they soon disappeared and, although I was sensible # th: 
Mr. McLane was deeply mortified by the direction which was ff 
given to the matter, I did not dream of its having the effe 
reviving the question of his resignation, which had been I suppose 
and hoped, disposed of by the last adjustment. I remained unde 
this impression until information reached me accidentally, and in 
way which was, under the circumstances, not a little extraordinar 
that he had actually resigned. On my arrival at an evening party at tl 
house of Mr. Ogle Tayloe I perceived Mrs. McLane near the door | 
which I entered engaged in conversation with Mr. John Sargent, 
Philadelphia, and I advanced to pay my respects to her. As I a 
proached Mr. Sargent was in the act of leaving her and raising hi 
voice somewhat, she exclaimed to the latter “ Well, thank Heavei 
it is over at last” Having been long on intimate and as I always sw 
posed very friendly terms with her I did not hesitate to ask wh 
happy deliverance had called out such a fervent expression of thar 
fulness. “‘ Why,” she replied, “I referred, of course, to Mr. McLa: n 
resignation ! ” adding a declaration of surprise at my apparent i 
rance of the event, which I assured her was real. Seeing Major D 
elson, the President’s private Secretary, nearby I asked him to w 
out with me, and on receiving his confirmation of the news I had j y 
heard, he also saying that he had supposed that I knew all abo 
J invited him to accompany me to the White House. e 
We found the President, lying on a sofa, quite alone and eviden 
jaded and despondent—a condition to which his naturally elas 
and self reliant spirit rarely succumbed. I described my brief i in 
view with Mrs. McLane, assured him of my ignorance of the f 
of her husband’s resignation and that I had not received the 
est intimation even from any quarter of his purpose, altho’ it now 
appeared that his letter of resignation had been delivered to ‘the 
President a day or two before. His countenance instantly clea 
up and expressed as plainly as words could have done th 
afforded him by my communication. My omission to sp 


°MS. VI, p. 10. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 613 


1 in relation to a matter of so much delicacy, about which we had 

usly held many embarrassing and painful consultations, had 
naturally caused him much uneasiness—doubtless not wholly free 

misgiving as to the steadfastness of my devotion to his policy 
to his person when brought in irreconcilable conflict with my 
; ant solicitude for Mr. McLane’s welfare. But the single fact 
hat the resignation had been made without my knowledge furnished 

clue to the entire proceedings and at once disclosed to his keen 
gacity that the movement was one of hostility to me. He directed 
Donelson to read to me the letter of resignation and the an- 
to it which had been prepared, and, speaking with the ease and 
om which had always characterized our intercourse, asked my 
nion of the latter. I gave it to him without reserve—he had gone 
her I thought, in his answer, than the occasion called for or than 
ce to himself allowed. I said that I cordially sympathized 
his desire to make his parting with Mr. McLane as soothing 
to the feelings of the latter as the case would admit of but that his 
mswer might well be construed as conceding errors on his own 
t. These I pointed out and whilst my view of the matter was 
ot fully assented to by Major Donelson who had drafted the answer, 
nevertheless admitted that the expresssions might be misconstrued. 
@ President then requested me to take the pen and to make the 
er what I thought it ought to be, which I did and he directed 
Major to copy it as it stood. The letters were never published 
believe; they are certainly not to be found in the publications 
e day or I would be able to point out the alterations with more 


he General immediately took up the question of a successor to the 
wing Minister and heartily consented to.offer the appointment to 
friend John Forsyth, by whom it was accepted. 
called at Mr. McLane’s house on the next day, was received by 
MeLane with her usual urbanity and remained long enough for 
McLane, who was, as she informed me, in his study, to present 
f if he was disposed to do so. Not seeing him within a proper 
or receiving any excuse for his non-appearance, I took a respect- 
ave of Mrs. McLane and do not remember to have seen her again. 
usband and myself shortly afterwards passed each other in our 
ges without recognition on either side, and once again, I met 
Baltimore on the occasion of General Smith’s funeral. I was 
President and during the ceremonies of the day was placed near 
h Mr. McLane, who had been an old friend of the General, and 
0 Mr. Taney, then and still Chief Justice of the United States. After 
@ Services were concluded the Chief Justice said to me “I saw that 
od your old friend McLane did not recognize each other: cer- 


614 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


tainly no advance in that direction,” he added, “could be expe 
from you.” ar 
The “ Globe” announced Mr. McLane’s resignation with a comy 
mentary notice of him which I never saw until I read it in the x 
paper, neither was I apprised of Mr. Wright’s agency in caust 
to appear—certainly not until after its appearance. In 1845, 
he suspected that Mr. McLane was seeking preferment from 
Polk and that he was aiming to advance his interest by an indice 
of hostility to Mr. Wright, who was looked to as the probable 
date for the succession, and to his friends, Mr. Blair made me sey 
communications having reference to these matters and in one 0! 
notes he thus spoke of that publication: a 
How much I regret the admission of the article in the Globe on McLane’s lea 
taking! It was written by Donelson and was intended by McLane for the y 
purpose for which it will now be used—my estoppel. Mr. Wright's ins 
alone induced me to surrender my objections. I intended to take Done 
article to the General and satisfy him that it should not appear, but Mr. W 
who seemed to have more interest in it than I could account for except 0 0 
supposition that you were desirous that McLane should have an honorable 
charge, overruled me. I never acted against my instincts in my life that I 
not, in the end, find myself in the wrong. 
The reader will have observed that in his letter to me acknowl 
ing the offer to him by Gen. Jackson of the office of Attorney a 
and also in that accepting the mission to England (by which he) 
raised from a state of great despondency to a position whidiil 
not fail to be gratifying to a reasonable man) Mr. McLane intims 
that more might perhaps have been done for his interests than 
done, and among his letters from England will be found one in wi 
replying to the information that he had been selected as Secretar 
the Treasury, he expresses in some form, his regret that in the 
struction of the President’s second Cabinet he had not been ¢ 
nated as Secretary of State in the place of Mr. Livingston. 
at the period when he resigned the latter office nor at any cia 
wards or before, with the exceptions I have named, did he- 
complaint in any form to me or to any other person, to my knowle 
of my treatment of him or of insincerity on my part, or failm 
for him all that I had promised or imputing to me any act a 
inconsistent with the friendship I had professed for and which 
been so liberally and disinterestedly extended to him, nor did he 
assign to me or to any other person, to my knowledge, in any SI 
any reason for dissolving our long and close relations. Ha 
dered by an act of complaisance to which he possessed no 
suitable opportunity to ask or to offer explanations, nothing ft 
was left for me to do save to forget, as far as practicable, the int 
association that had unhappily ripened between us bntal 


|. * 


_ AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 615 


ntinual anxiety and drawing from me manifold acts of 
which, it now appeared, might have been more judiciously 
more deservedly bestowed. 
theless the unprecedented steps by which those relations 
nly and mysteriously ruptured by Mr. McLane caused me 
gain and have forced from me an exposition which I would 
we avoided and which but for the reasons already given I 
ave avoided. Every one of our contemporaries, in any con- 
e degree conversant with the course of public events, knew of 
z continued and intimate intercourse and of my active interest 
welfare, and understood that on the day on which he presented 
ident Jackson his resignation of the office of Secretary of State 
ranked by myself ane by all my friends among the foremost 
1umber of the latter bound to me by the strongest ties, and 
made the dissolution of those ties and the abandonment of his 
cial station parts of the same transaction, conveying to the 
mind, by the manner of its execution, an impression that his 
ion, if not caused, had at least been facilitated by bad treat- 
ceived at my hands. The official relations that had long 
him with the President were closed at his own instance and 
itable grace and dignity and in a form excluding the sus- 
f a breach in their personal friendship. From all his asso- 
the Government he parted apparently with kind feelings, 
o’ I had stood towards him for years in the acknowledged 
of “next friend,” had during the greater part of that 
been doomed to bear, in addition to my own abundant polit- 
ations and troubles, a large portion of his private griefs— 
those which were real ia those more numerous and more 
ig which, from time to time, were conjured up by the work- 
a restless and a morbid spirit—altho’ I was yet fresh from the 
fion of an arrangement between him and the President by 
e had been saved from the destructive effects of his own rash- 
with me a very different course was pursued. Not only, as has 
efore stated, were no explanations asked, no complaints ad- 
no suggestions of his intention to resign made but his design 
arently with studied caution concealed from me so that the 
might be completed before I should be informed that it 
The President, after what had passed before, would 
-was doubtless a broach the subject to me if I did not 
of it to him. The line of conduct towards me which was 
d upon by Mr. McLane at and immediately preceding the 
| of his resignation was persevered in to the end of his life. 
the whole of that after period not a line or a word in regard » 


° MS. VI, p. 15. 


616 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 7 


to the present or the past was exchanged between us, direct Or | 
directly. After the opportunity I had afforded for such a cq 
munication, if he desired one, unless I was weak enough to . 
teer explanations to the public all that the latter could know or inf 
was that a prominent politician whom they had long recogni 
at Washington as apparently chief among my friends, had sudd en 
quitted the seat of Government my enemy. 4 

The merest novice in the affairs and ways of the world y 
reject the suggestion that a course so unnatural and so indefensih 
matured in a mind of remarkable shrewdness and subtlety, 
adopted without specific calculations or ulterior purposes. In 1 
spect to these I have no information—of sufficient importance to 
stated—which will not be open to the reader of these pages, | 
it was, of course, not possible that I should fail to have decid 
impressions, to which, with the explanations I make here, be 
nothing more than my inferences from facts resting chiefly on 
McLane’s authority and, beyond that, to an important extent on t 
communications of his respectable, early, constant and clear-hea 
friend, the reader is not asked to allow more weight than th 
which he would himself think them entitled. I am now- ent i 
satisfied that Major Lewis is correct in the supposition the 
McLane’s imagination was dazzled by an expectation of reach 
Presidency and that his mind was influenced from an early 
ef our intercourse by that hope. His discomfitures in rei 
attempts to promote the cause of a national bank—to which 
devoted intus et in cute but in which he encountered the im 
cpposition of President Jackson—at length satisfied him that 
schemes for the gratification of his desires in that direction € 
democratic channels were forever blasted. One chance 
the possibility, perhaps, in his view, the probability that 
sition might be induced to accept him as their Presidential. 
at the then coming election if his name could be brought be 
in an imposing form. There were features of his posi 
operating causes in the temper of the times well calc 
with high hopes of such a result a temperament at inter 
sanguine. The bank, with its vast interests and exerti 
looked to as the strong arm of the opposition and among 
sons by whom Mr. McLane was then surrounded and wi 
at the particular period of which I speak, he freely consu: 
were artful and, in such matters, able men who devoted 
time and talent and energies to its service. His partiality 
close companionship of several of these had often caused 
easiness at earlier stages of our intimacy. From these so 
might have learned, if his own observation had failed to sugge 


a AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. © 617 


Mr. Clay, for the ensuing election at least, a disposition 
he sequel, controlled their action. The maftcenral whig 
mew well the hopelessness of a campaign under the 
of Calhoun or Webster. Who beside could present so 
claim to the favor of a bank-governed opposition as Mr. 
He had always been its friend, had exerted himself per- 
in its behalf than any other public man among its sup- 
id in latter years had done so under peculiar responsibilities 
t hazard to his political position and prospects. What 
he and the men who were his advisers hope for from the 
of that institution when to claims founded on such con- 
ons he should be placed in a situation to add that of political 
m in its cause—that of having sacrificed one of the highest, 
ored and most influential stations in the Government on 
of his unceasing devotion. In the actual position of parties 
back upon pretensions otherwise so solid and irrefragable 
Lh ve been found in the character of his well known relations 
who was expected to be the anti-bank candidate. To meet 
jection the prompt and absolute renunciation and equally 
Teversal of those relations, personal and political, was a 
m doubtless suggested by at least one of the busy ministers 
bank by whom he was, as I have mentioned, beset and which 
ppear to have been adopted without compunction. 
‘cLane did not receive the aid of Mr. Biddle to elevate him 
Presidency of the United States altho’ he obtained, thro’ the 
influence of the latter, a position which afforded him for sev- 
a liberal salary with little labor.t 
portions of this work which relate to his conduct were pre- 
ot for purposes of crimination but for vindication and I 
y thanks in advance to anyone who shall find himself able 
we the adverse statements and deductions they contain, or 
y in any degree the unfavorable impressions which they 
rwise produce. I ask that my own course shall be held, in 
aation of my Countrymen, in the respect and regard to which 
ed under the facts as they have transpired—nothing more. 


{ ot 


A A OS A A: CL LLL LIA 


5 1 President of the Morris Canal & Banking Company. 


CHAPTER XLII. 


Of greater public importance and of even less agreeable characte 
were the scenes which by the order of events are now brought to on 
review. I allude to the proceedings of the first session of the twent 
third Congress—a portion of our legislative history upon which tl 
people stamped its true character by denominating it, from its clos 
“the panic-session,” by which name it has ever since been known an 
which it is destined to bear as long as its doings are remembered, 

By my election to the office of Vice President I became Presi 
of the Senate and consequently an attendant upon its important 
bates and proceedings, as well in its secret as in its public sessi 
and having been at the same time confidentially consulted by Pres 
dent Jackson, as our correspondence will abundantly shew, in rel 
tion to all the measures save one which during that session becai 
the principal subjects of contention between that body—then # 
head-quarters of the opposition—and himself, it was scarcely pr 
sible that any person could possess better opportunities to kno 
whole truth both of those subjects and of the motives by which # 
contestants° were respectively influenced. a 

The virtual censure of a portion of the National Legislature | 
their constituents conveyed in the name popularly applied to 
proceedings was called forth by the course of the Senate upon t 
application of the bank for a renewal of its charter and by the cc 
troversy which had arisen between it and the President of ¢ 
United States touching that matter. To enable the reader to d 
with greater accuracy in respect to the justice of that censure i 
be highly useful to precede my notice of the transactions upon 
it was pronounced with a brief review of the principal features c 
controversy alluded to from its commencement to the period at 
we have arrived. The tendency of a national bank in a Gove 
like ours, and the particular acts of the late bank to promote th 
set up for an extension of its charter, are subjects which have 2 
been touched upon in this work for other purposes than those 
better understanding of which they are again brought forws 
the reader may rest satisfied that the repetition will be limite 
will he be disposed to complain when he finds that its only ob; 

is to-save him trouble by bringing to one point every fact and con | 
sideration that may serve to illustrate the whole subject. 

Gen. Jackson entered upon the duties of the office of Presid 
the fourth of March 1829, and the charter of the bank was to 


o MS, Wii, p: 20: 
618 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 619 


own limitation on the third of March 1836. A new charter, 
an extension of that under which it was then acting was naturally 
z Feabject upon which the thoughts of those who were entrusted 
th its management were most employed. The ability of the bank 
ain a majority in its favor in both Houses of Congress was not 
ted; the only opposition feared was that which might proceed 
the new President. There had not been, I believe, a moment 
mee Gen. Jackson’s elevation to the Presidency in which they 
d not been disturbed by unfavorable forebodings upon that inter- 
ing point. This presentiment had its origin in their knowledge of 
he school in which he had been taught the rudiments of his political 
ucation, of the earnestness with which he had in early life sus- 
ed its doctrines and of the stability and integrity of his char- 
. Intimations thrown out in his first and second annual Mes- 
served to confirm their apprehensions and if anything was 
ed to assure the bank of what his course towards it would be 
readily obtained from the General himself, at a personal 
iew between him and the President of the bank soon after the 
entered upon his official duties These intimations and 
rations went no further than to announce objections to the bank 
er its existing charter, but Mr. Biddle was too sagacious and too 
acquainted with the ways of the world not to find in them 
ence of a strong and in all likelihood, an unyielding opposition 
> any national bank of the description desired by him and by his 
ssociates. Having made this discovery” and being himself a man 
resolute and persistent spirit he dismissed on the instant all 
es of assistance from the President and looked only upon him as 
n one whose power and infiuence he was destined to encounter at 
y step in his efforts to obtain a new charter for the institution 
1 Ewhich he presided. 


idle was in Washington the third week of November, 1829, and the interview took 
‘some time between the 17th and 26th. 
E is well-nigh impossible for natures like Andrew Jackson and Nicholas Biddle to 
and each other and that Biddle misunderstood the situation does not seem to have 
d to Van Buren even as a remote possibility. To the latter with his intimate 
2 of Jackson it appears to have been inconceivable that Biddle had not made the 
y here credited to his astuteness and sagacity. The Biddle Papers, from which 
following extracts are taken, conclusively show Biddle’s state of mind - 
e rumor to which you allude, I have not heard from any other quarter & I believe 
ely without foundation. My reason for thinking so is, that during a recent visit 
‘ashington, from which I returned on Thursday last, I had much conversation of 2 
full & frank character with the President about the Bank im all which he never inti- 
any such purpose. On the contrary he spoke in terms the most kind & gratifying 
rds the institution—expressed his thanks for the services it had rendered the Gov‘ 
ice his connection with it & I look to the message with expectations of the most satis- 
ory kind.”—(Biddle to Alexander Hamilton, Philadelphia, Nov. 28th, 1829. Biddle 
: President’s Letter Book, No. 3, page 98.) 
ound with great pleasure a friendly feeling towards the Bank in the minds of the 
& his particular friends who formerly entertained different views. This I regard 
- fortunate circumstance for the Institution—and our general affairs are, I think, 
' prosperous.”—(Biddle to Robert Lenox, Philadelphia, Dec. 4th, 1829. Biddle 
President’s Letter Book, No. 3, page 99.) 


620 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 


From that moment, as subsequent developments have fully 
nothing was thought oe by the managers of the bank but prepar 
for the struggle, and their preparations were on a scale that indi 
a fair appreciation on its side of the character and strength of it 
anticipated antagonist. But altho’ thus impressed its advocates an 
supporters were not dismayed and conscious of the vast resour 
the bank they entered upon the great undertaking before them coi 
fident of success. The session of 1831-2 (four years before the expir 
tion of its charter) was selected for the presentation of the ban 
memorial asking from Congress a new or extended charter. Tha 
session was deemed the most pr omising as it was the last before th 
ensuing Presidential election and afforded the most eligible oppo 
tunity oor an attempt to drive the President into an approval of a’ bi 
for its recharter by the dread of its power to prevent his re-ele ti 0 
if he should succeed in defeating such a bill by the use of the ve 
power. The exercise of that power was the obstacle most feared 1 
the bank, and to place the question in a position which would rend 
such a Seige by the President most difficult and hazardous t 
popularity was of course the principal point at which it a 
Authorization of its President to employ the funds of the instit 
at his discretion to influence the Press, confined in the first inst 
to specific modes, had been provided for, but these, tho’ not lost 
of, were soon felt to be altogether inadequate to the urgencies o 
occasion. The possession of majorities in both branches of the on 
tional Legislature enabled the bank to drive the Executive to rest 
to the extreme power with which he was clothed by the Constitu ti 
to defeat the bill for its re- incorporation. This power tho’ its ex 
cise was not without precedent in this Country had been used _ 
marked hesitation and reserve by his predecessors and was n 
favorably received. This was in itself an advantage to th 
which few men coming before their Countrymen for the last 
applicant for their confidence and support would be willing toe 
counter or could be induced to do so even under circumstances f 
more favorable than those which surrounded President J. ackson. , 
- addition to the assumed odium of resorting in a Republic to 1 v 
they invidiously called the one-man-power was the liability of 
acts tho’ they could not rightfully be so regarded to be perve: 
a hastening of the collection of its debts by the bank. 

The necessity of winding up the affairs of an institution, - 
capital of thirty-five millions, the business of which had been 
mense and widely diffused, within the time limited by its el 
was well calculated to produce unavoidable embarrassments i 
business concerns of the community, with the best intentions on t 
part of those to whose management its affairs had been committ 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 621 


0 excite great apprehensions without a resort to extraneous 
as to increase the causes of alarm. But the sharp-sighted and 
J men on whom that duty devolved as also those who had ven- 
ired their political standing on the success of the bank and had 
ed all their energies to its cause had been made too sensible of 
he General’s popularity to trust to the ordinary means of warfare 
Ss plone as there were any additional barriers in their power to inter- 
ose to his adoption of the only course by which their success could 
e » prevented. They therefore set themselves at work to add to 
Sisting difficulties in winding up its affairs within the prescribed 

iod and thus to stimulate those who might be affected by it to a 
/more vigorous pressure upon the President to induce him to 
ithhold his veto. The expedient resorted to for that purpose was, 
t must be admitted, of a truly formidable character. It was nothing 
s than a largely increased line of discounts notwithstanding full 
official notice to the bank of the intention of the Government 
apply all its disposable funds to the payment of the public debt. 
y millions had been for years the average amount of the loans 
the bank. In October 1830 they stood at $40,527,523. Between 
quary 1831 and May 1832 they were increased to $70,428,007: the 
hest figure ever reached. The amount of its outstanding dis- 
s between the periods mentioned was thus increased about thirty 
ons, saying nothing of the increase which took place between 
the date to which the report of the bank extended, and July 
en the veto was interposed. This extraordinary and reckless step 
s taken without even a pretence of a change in the business of the 
Country to justify, much less to require so great a change in the 
t of its credits. The design, as charged at the time and fully 
nonstrated by subsequent disclosures, was to place the Country 
deeply and unless relief could in some other way be obtained— 
irretrievably in debt as to compel the whole community to demand 
the President that he should give his assent to a bill which it was 
tain would be passed by the two Houses, to extend the charter of 
bank as the only means by which it could be saved from wide 
ead distress and cureless ruin; an appeal which the bank managers 
ed he would not dare to disregard and which, if disregarded, 
ald inevitably defeat his re-election. To make the device the more 
ual the largest portion of these professed loans was scattered 
the Western States, of one of which the President was a 
hed citizen and in most of them® since his entrance on the 
ical stage he had supplanted his great rival—the leader of the 
power and the long established favorite of the West. Re- 
trances from that quarter, it was naturally enough supposed, 


°MS. VI, p. 25. 


622 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, = 


aad 


would produce the deepest impression on the minds of the Pred el 
and of those about him who enjoyed his confidence. Able to 
their majorities in both Houses the friends of the bank did not 
their time with unnecessary debates in either, reserving their spe 
for the coming in of the veto, when they were to be virtually 
dressed to the people as they knew beforehand that they could no 
obtain a constitutional majority over the veto in either House. . 
A Bill for the renewal of the charter of the bank passed bot! 
branches of Congress notwithstanding the presence in each of 
majority who professed to be supporters of the President and a 
his administration and who had been elected as such. Mr. Dalla 
who presented the memorial of the bank, and who was doubtless 
sincere friend of the President and solicitous for the success of hi 
administration, but who felt himself instructed by his State to uf 
port the bank, frankly admitted that “the propriety of an appl 
cation so early in the term of its incorporation for the renews 
its charter, during a popular sensation in Congress which must ceas 
to exist some years before that term expires and on the eve of 
the excitement incident to a great political movement (the 
dential election) struck his mind as more than doubtful.” TT 
President interposed his veto, and the Bill failed for want of 
two-thirds vote. 7 
The debate upon the consideration of the veto-message was pé 
haps as able as any that had ever occurred in the Senate, in y¥ 
body the Bill originated and where its fate was therefore to be 
passed upon. Mr. Clay was to be the opposition candidate ag: 
the re-election of President Jackson and Mr. Webster was sel 
to take the lead in the discussion on the part of the bank. Of 
singular ability with which he discharged that difficult and 
sponsible duty I have elsewhere spoken. His speeches, for he a 
dressed the Senate more than once, were addressed at times avow: 
to the Country, and had in view the accomplishment of three 
cipal objects; viz:—first, to alarm the thinking sober-minded : 
conservative men of all parties on account of the despotic and um 
constitutional doctrines which he solemnly charged President Ja 
son with having avowed and maintained in the veto message. 
parts of his great efforts have already been fully noticed in 
portions of this work which treat of the rise and progress 
political parties. Second, to impress the Country with adequat 
to the extent of its indebtedness to the bank—of the impossibi 
paying that debt within the period allowed to the bank to wind up1 
concerns without the sacrifice of every interest that was worth j 
serving and to portray the desolation and ruin inevitable if 
necessity for doing so was established, as it would be by the 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 623 


C of the author of the veto. Third, to settle the finality of 
on in his favor by the people upon the question of bank 


bearing of Mr. Webster’s great speech upon the first point 
s been I repeat noticed elsewhere. Full justice can only be done te 
> consummate ability which he displayed on that occasion by 
ng his speeches. I invite the reader to study them as well on 
nt of the intellectual gratification they will afford him as from 
ion that thus he can not fail to be satisfied that the increase 
bank’s line of discount was made for the purpose I have set 
and that the orator had been fully instructed of its character 
it regard if not consulted in the construction of the plan. 
I will content myself with brief extracts, applicable to each of the 
9 cardinal points last presented and which embrace the drift of his 
gument in that direction. 
Phirty millions of the capital of the bank, (said he) are now on 
n n and discount in States on the Mississippi. These will all have ° 
de called in within three years and nine months if the charter is 
tended. He then went on to show the impracticability of this 
ion, and to prove that the State banks would not be able to 
in the payment of that enormous debt. “I hesitate not to 
” he continued, “that as this Veto travels to the West it will de- 
tlate the value of every man’s property from the Atlantic to the 
al of Missouri. Its effects will be found in the price of land, 
great and leading article of Western property, in the price of 
in the produce of labor, in the repression of enterprise and in 
rassments of every kind of business and occupation.” 
here was much more of the same style and tendency but this 
extract exhibits the substance of all he said on that head. 
respect to the last point—the finality of the decision which the 
e would make at the election upon the great issue of bank or 
, then submitted to them by the consent of all parties, he 


(the President's) objections go against the whole substance of the law 
lly creating the bank. They deny, in effect, that the bank is consti- 
they deny that it is expedient; they deny that it is necessary for the 


this place they are such as to extinguish all hope that the present bank 
bank at all resembling it, or resembling any known similar institution, 
receive his approbation ; he is against the bank and against any bank 
ed in a manner known to this or to any other Country. * * #* Tt 
certain that without a change in our public councils the bank will not be 
d nor will any other be established which according to_the general 
f mankind will be entitled to the name, * * * Congress has acted 


624 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATI 


ceedings here places the question with all its connpeteee 
fully before the people. * * * Such is this Message. It remai 
the people of the United States to choose between the principles he 
and thew Government. These cannot stand together. The one or 
must be rejected. If the sentiments of the Message shall receive the 
approbation the Constitution will have perished. 


Such was the issue which Mr. Webster, as the spokesman f 
bank, prepared for the people of the United States. Such, 
the exception of the rhetorical hyperbole with which they clo 
legitimate consequences that would, in his judgment, in the 
tion of all his political coadjutors and of the bank manager 
from a decision of the people in favor of the President at the 
tion then on the eve of being held. It was with a distinct u 
standing on all sides that this ought to be the effect of the d 
about to be made that the issue so clearly explained by Mr. W. 
was submitted to the people. To this the friends of the adminis 
tion, the bank managers, and its political supporters then f 
assented. Mr. Webster’s speech was published and thorough h 
culated at the expense of the bank and the substance of if 
reiterated from the stump in every quarter of the land. F 


1 Speech of July 11, 1832. Register of Debates, VIII, pt. 1, 1221-1240. 


a CHAPTER XLIII. 


In the course of my public life I have not met with another man 
who came up to Gen. Jackson’s standard as well in respect to the 
th of his belief in the certainty that a public servant honestly 
ng for the welfare of his Country would receive the good-will 
support of the people as long as they remained confident of his 
ity as in his constant readiness to stake his political reputation 
that faith regardless of consequences merely personal to him- 
Silas Wright was fully his equal in habitual negation of self 
1¢ performance of public duties and in his willingness to stake all 
had or was on his faith in the virtue of the people, but, probably 

a constitutional difference in their temperaments, he did not 
ys feel as certain that all would go well. That as long as the 
le were at their ease in respect to the sincerity of their representa- 
they would be predisposed to think them right and to support 

accordingly was among the earliest and most confirmed con- 
ions of the General’s mind, and one of the numerous and striking 
ments of which he frequently spoke to me. On the night of my 
appearance at the White House, after my return from England, 
bited when stretched on a sick-bed a spectre in physical appear- 
ut as always a hero in spirit—an impressive illustration of his 
und and unspeakable trust in the people. Holding my hand in 
of his own and passing the other thro’ his long white locks he 
with the clearest indications ° of a mind composed, and in a tone 

devoid of passion or bluster—‘“the bank, Mr. Van Buren is 
to kill me, but J will kill it!” Never before this time have I 
d to this feature of that deeply interesting interview except 
privacy of family intercourse, and I have been solely prevented 
oing so by an apprehension that casual hearers of the state- 
either understanding the man nor conversant with the order 
ts, might infer that he had been controlled in his struggle 
he bank by offended personal feelings—an inference which I 
as well as such a thing can be known would be without the 
foundation in truth. If a wish to propitiate the bank or to 
hostility had ever been entertained by him he might have 
d it at any moment after his accession to office. But he had 


° MS. VI, p. 30. 
83°—voL 2—20-——— 40 : 625 


626 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


taken his stand upon the question of the continuance of that in ‘itu 
tion long before it entered upon the course which drew from him tl 
words I have quoted, and in them he only gave utterance to his cor 
sciousness of and his determination to defeat its design in the selet 
tion of the time for the presentation of its memorial—a design su 
stantially admitted by Mr. Dallas when he presented it. Gen. Jacksot 
was not the man in the performance of his public duties and upon 
great public question to obey the influence of any merely persona 
motives. On the contrary thoroughly imbued, as I have before sai¢ 
with the feelings of the political school of which he had been an eark 
graduate, he was, from the beginning, predisposed against the cor 
tinuance of an institution like that upon which it was inevitable tha 
he would be called to act officially, and not seeing his way clear : 
strip it of its objectionable features he soon decided to oppose its re 
incorporation. This resolution he was earlier led to adopt I 
finding himself at once surrounded by the sinister influences which I 
had been taught to look upon as prominent among the dangei "ous 
elements of its power. Having arrived at that conclusion he pr 
ceeded to what he considered a duty in the spirit and with the coni- 
dence of support from the people by which his political course was 
distinguished throughout. The toils which had been spread with 
much art and labor and cost to turn him from the path he had chos 
and to destroy him if he persisted in it were crushed beneath his 
undaunted tread. Notwithstanding the large vote they secured 
most of the Northern and Eastern States and especially in New Yo 
through the aid of the Georgia Missionary imposture, (of whi 
have elsewhere spoken) the bank forces were beaten at every p 
Not only was President Jackson re-elected by an overwhelm 
majority over Mr. Clay, the bank candidate, but to afford the n 
unmistakable evidence of the determination of the people not 
make “ the change in our public councils” without which Mr. Webs 
had insisted that the present bank would not be continued nor woul 
there be the slightest chance for any bank “ which, according to 
general sense of mankind would be entitled to the name,” they, a 
same time, elected to the second office in the Government the write 
these pages, who had gone farther than it was perhaps allowabl 
the President, by reason of his official position, to go in the promu 
tion of unqualified opposition to the bank. They also returned 
popular branch of the Legislature a majority who, unlike 
predecessors, were not merely nominally but heartily against 
continuance of the bank and who, when a fitting opportunity W 
presented, erected an impassable barrier against its further progres; 
towards the accomplishment of its objects. 
Such was the result of the first campaign in what was 

bank war. Of the distinctness of the issue upon which it was \ 


ag AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 627 


2 un iformity of construction placed upon it by all parties, and of 
heir eagerness for the trial I have already spoken. In respect to 
3 unequivocal character of the decision of the people upon the 
points submitted to them, there was no room for and no attempt at 
zavil. Unfairness in the election, the common excuse of a defeated 
rty, was in this instance not even pretended. The will of the 
in regard to the bank had been most clearly expressed on its 
appeal and according to the forms of the constitution. 
1e only question that presented itself for the decision of that in- 
on, and the result has afforded a melancholy demonstration 
e€ momentous importance of the question as well to the good of 
country as to the interests of the stockholders and debtors of 
@ bank, was whether it would submit to that will, thus solemnly 
nounced and in a form so obligatory, or whether it would con- 
the war. We have seen what were the promises made in its 
If by its great leader, when he urged an early decision of the 
issue, promises which were also virtually made by the bank 
‘in its memorial to congress for an extension of its charter. 
@ bank,” it said, “should have as much time as possible to 
te the duty, always a very delicate and difficult one, to aid the 
aunity in seeking new channels of business, and by gradual and 
movements to press with the least inconvenience on the great 
ts connected with it.” 
re the election no one affected to doubt the intention of the 
to wind up its concerns if the decision should be against it. 
reasons which rendered that course obligatory need not to be 
ulated. They are clear to the apprehension of all who are sin- 
friends to our institutions and to the great principle on which 
are founded—that of the sovereignty of the popular will. Upon 
who are not they would be urged in vain. The great saving to 
nterests of the country and to those of the stockholders and 
tors of the bank and to the character of all concerned that 
d have been made if the bank managers had performed their 
this respect, is now at least well understood, and sadly con- 
But the supporters of that institution, of every hue, decided 
wise, and, swayed alternately by the “rule or ruin” spirit of 
cal partisanship and by the desperate hopes based on the chances 
ght present themselves in the course of the'struggle they de- 
ed to subject both government and people to a reckless, unscru- 
and injurious exercise of the immense power of the bank until 
ould submit to itsdemands. This isa very grave accusation, one 
i, in connection with the means hereafter charged to have been 
ed to carry that most extraordinary determination into effect, 


628 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


satisfaction. But such is not the case. These charges w 
and in terms far more severe than those here used, made a 
bank in official papers proceeding from the Chief Magistrate 
country and from other high Executive functionaries, in the 
of standing committees of the national legislature and through 
public press, and were in turn repelled, or explained, as best t 
could be, in the manifestoes of the bank, in counter-reports, | 
ceeding, in some instances, from similar sources and in the colu 
of friendly newspapers. Moreover the country has long since p 2 
upon them also, and I am not going farther than the ratte ] 
tify, in assuming that its judgment was one of condemnation, se 
and eee against the bank. 
Tt is now more than a quarter of a century since these transa act 
occurred. The interests out of which they sprang have cease 
be operative and the passions and prejudices by which the a 
in them were influenced have in a great measure subsided. It 
a moment so auspicious to truth that I propose—not to re-argu 
questions which grew out of them, nor ° to aggravate or am zt 
the nature and tendency of the transactions themselves or ¢ 
motives of the parties to them, but simply to state the cases 
present, truly and as impartially as I can, to remove at least 
degree the obscurity that time and the forgetfulness it bree 
spread over them and to do my part towards preparing the 
their place in history. To do this is not only a right commas 
but a right which, on the part of those who have possess 
tunities superior to those of the generality of their fellowil 
for performing it, becomes, from that consideration onal 
Will it be asked, why revive the recollection, in all their o 
sharpness of outline, of scenes once so discreditable and so di 
ing—why seek to arrest the obscurity which is settling upon 1 
why not suffer them to be forgotten? The answer to such ref 
should they occur to the reader, are numerous, cogent, a 
trovertible. 
Never, either in time of peacd or in a state of public wal 
this Country so thoroughly convulsed, never before was th 
principle—that of the sovereignty of the popular will—whi 
at the foundation of free government and without the ca 
preservation of which such a government, however plau 
structed, is nothing more than an empty pretense, so sel 
aced, never before were our material interests so severel 
tonly injured as they were by the successive struggles of 
Bank of the United States to obtain a renewal of 
Those who lived at that day and were conversant 


° MS. VI, p. 35. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 629 


know that all the branches of the Federal Government— 
ve, Legislative, and Judicial—as well as those of the State 
nents were profoundly agitated by those struggles. They 
ed themselves into all the ramifications of society, shed their 
influence upon all its interests and for a season suspended, 
y did not permanently weaken the recognition of some of its 
vital obligations. Is it to be expected that transactions so 
ing in their enactment and pregnant with consequences so 
t can be ignored in the history of the Country ? This would 
be e practicable if it were desirable, but it is neither. Erroneous 
ions of them would unavoidably usurp the pages of history, if 
were not taken to maintain the truth in respect to them. To 
d every bona fide effort deserves, on the contrary and should 
ve the commendation of the community. To make such an 
is one of the objects of this work. If I fail to state the truth 
spect to them others will correct the errors into which I may 
A regard for the interests of truth will, of itself, be a suf- 
it motive to induce them to assume that aces for the mass of 
n prefer—nay love the truth when no sinister-or selfish objects are 
promoted by its perversion. The time has arrived in respect 
se transactions when no such objects can be thus advanced. 
of the men at whose doors these excesses were laid are in 
graves and the few who are still left on the political stage, 
nding like reeds shaken by the winds, are divested of all par- 
) vitality. The political party that was responsible for them, 
e it justified and sought to sustain them, is itself extinct, 
; hopelessly extinct. Here and there may, possibly, be still 
a few homeless spirits seeking to revivify its dry bones, but 
empt will prove futile. 
r the acts of which I am about to speak, however momentous 
r day, there is, therefore, no longer either personal or par- 
responsibility, or interest in their misrepresentation or misinter- 
on. The truth in respect to them must at some time be told, 
th that all should, as all must be satisfied, whatever may be 
ect upon the fame of those who have gone before us. It is 
hat it should be so. The aphorism “ de mortuis nil nisi bonum” 
tless founded in the most humane principles, and, when cor- 
interpreted, its observance is honorable; it does not however 
to a case of this character. When the rule is restricted to 
sonal infirmities and private vices of men I for one am con- 
at it should receive the interpretation which its words im- 
The denunciation of such defects—when those who were sub- 
) them are no more—may, doubtless, on occasions, be made 
to the after generations, but the annoyance to the living 


630 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 


arising from it is generally certain and its advantages are so ofte 
problematical as to render the extension of the charity of silence e | 
offences of that description no unreasonable sacrifice to the solemnif 
and immunity of the grave. But when one whose conduct becom 
the subject of animadversion acted for the public in the matter 
which his action is impeached, as the representative of his countr 
men or of a portion of them, the measure and duration of his © 
sponsibility with reason and justice assume a very different cor 
plexion. In such cases the rule which exempts from personal x 
sponsibility the representative who rescues his country from gre 
peril, howsoever illegal the means by which its salvation is ae 
complished,—salus populi suprema lexa—attaches to his misdee d 
in turn and with equal justice, an accountability from which # 
acts of private men are exempted. That no such exemption car 
claimed for the conduct of public men for official malfeasance 
now the received opinion of the world. It is interesting to witne 
the extent to which this principle of responsibility after death 
the public opinion of the surviving or of succeeding generatio 
drawing after it the unreserved disclosure of every thing that ¢ 
pertains to or will serve to explain the acts and motives of t 
public men in past days, is now carried in England—the only cot 
try in Europe where the press is really free: to see private cabiné 
and secret depositories, formerly so strictly guarded against 
intrusion of inquisitive eyes, now freely searched—the most priv: 
records, confidential letters and every document that can thr 
light upon the past unreservedly given to the public for the bet 
or the living. The opinions thus manifested as to what is consist 
with sound alien ethics come from a source entitled to our resp 
If there are features in the English system of which we do not 
prove we must nevertheless admit and admire the purity and fi 
to duty which is there exacted from public men. The prepara 
and publication of true accounts of the proceedings we are al 
to describe are thus nothing more than acts of justice to the rep 
tions of the distinguished men who took part in them on one side 
or another, and at the same time, of the soundest policy in res) 
to those who come after us. The memories of those who ex xe 
themselves to persecution by pursuing the course which proy 
be the right one should be duly honored for their patriotism, t 
integrity and their intelligence and it is no less right that # 
who devoted their faculties and their influence to an opposite pé 
should bear the odium of their misdeeds. Such are and ought t 
the conditions upon which men enter into public life and assi 
public trusts, certainly under all governments that claim to be f 
The just apportionment of praise and censure among the actor 
those transactions is especially due to the Country which bore 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 631 


runt of the evils that were produced by them, and which, if ever 
rain exposed to similar trials, may thus have the benefit of the 
and the warning upon those on whom the administration © 
F public affairs may chance, in such a crisis, to have devolved. 
The question of a national bank has been, in all its phases and at 
imes, one of the most disturbing characters in our history. The 
sion of which we speak was the fourth on which the Country 
been agitated with especial violence by its appearance on the 
lative stage. The extent to which our national councils were 
haken when the subject was first introduced, with other and kin- 
ed devices from the fertile genius of Alexander Hamilton, will 
rer be forgotten ; the second arose at the expiration of the charter 
of the first bank, when a severe struggle was made for its renewal— 
‘struggle in which its petition to Congress was attempted to be 
ned by means and infiuences similar in spirit to those after- 
ards resorted to, but without success; the third at the establishment 
f the second and last bank, through an honest but mistaken impres- 
sion, on the part of the virtuous Madison, of the necessity of such 
institution, and, lastly, the fierce conflict now the subject of our 
w, and in ich as a national institution it was, it is to be 
d, finally overthrown. Whether another attempt to establish 
national bank will be made and, if so, how soon, are questions 
“which no man will undertake to answer with confidence. There 
3 certainly many ° who think that the subject will never again be 
red and this is a consummation devoutly to be wished. But 
e was the political prophet who, in 1811, when the question of 
= renewal of the charter of the first bank was decided and, as was 
the time supposed, finally decided in the negative by the casting 
e of George Clinton and when a large majority of the people 
d of his course “ well done, good and faithful servant! *—would 
had the boldness to predict that it would be revived and a new 
onal bank established in 1816, less than four years afterwards ?— 
ecially would such a prediction have been deemed preposterous 
had been also assumed that a result, apparently so improbable, 


Sen! Mr. Webster indeed asseverated that a national bank 
is an “obsolete idea” but it is to me, not at all likely that the 
Oposition was dictated by a settled opinion founded on a compari- 
Bot the facts of the past with the probabilities of the future. 
ppointed and deeply mortified as he was by the failure of the 
zerated estimate he had formed of the invincibility of a great 
power willing to devote all its means to the accomplishment 
s objects, it is, to my mind, much more probable that the declara- 


° MS. VI, p. 40. 


632 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


tion had its origin in a desire to neutralize, as far and as fast 
possible, the odium which he and his party had drawn upon ther 
selves by their unscrupulous support of the bank. i 
It may turn out that the idea of the usefulness of such an institu- 
tion has been so thoroughly exploded in this Country as to prevent any 
attempt at its re-establishment among us; but we have no sufficient 
reason for assuming such a result as certain, nor adequate motives fi 
exposing ourselves, in this regard to the proverbial hazard of poli 
ical currents and speculations. Our political system may be said 
to be in comparison with others, yet in its infancy, but we have had 
sufficient experience under it to satisfy us that we can not expect ex 
emption from those vibrations in the movements of public question 
and events which have so long been witnessed under other and old er 
institutions—vibrations answering to those which are exhibited in 
most of nature’s works and serving to confirm the unerring truth of 
the declaration of the wisest of men that “the thing that hath been 
it is that which shall be, and there is no new thing under the sun.” © , 
Having said thus much in deference to a feeling which, neverthe 
less, might very well not have arisen in the breast. of any reader, we 
will continue our progress towards the commencement of the “ Ps Lic 
Session.” “ 
The expectation so confidently indulged by the republican support- 
ers of the administration that the bank would submit to the decision 
that had been made on its appeal and the disappointment they ex 
hibited at a different result were more creditable to their political sin- 
cerity than to their sagacity in estimating the designs of party lead 
and of corporate bodies. If the distinguished founder of the pa 
system in the United States had devoted his powers and his time t 
the work of infusing into the first national bank the largest share of 
his own impatience of popular restraint he could not have made it 
more hostile to the government of numbers than such large monied in 
stitutions are by the imperious law of their natures, nor can the inf 
ences drawn by the bank in favor of its ability to sustain itself in s 
a contest as that on which it had resolved, after a comparison 
means with those of the Government, be thought as extravagan 
some may have, upon a superficial view of the matter, supposed. 
contemplating any action that would justify the application of the 
military arm of the Government to the bank or its supporters the 
latter looked to a struggle in which none but civilians would parti 
pate and, thus regarding it, none can fail to perceive how largely 
resources ofthe bank exceeded those of the Government. Agai 
the officers holding their commissions at the pleasure of the latter- 
body thought to possess much power but never half so efficient as itl 
popularly rated—the bank had at its command a far more puissan 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 633 


n “ the train-bands of commerce ” and was much better supplied 
assumed rival with the means of enlisting, stimulating and 
those whom it mustered into its service. A statement of the 
e amounts of money and funds convertible into money which, 
iod we speak of, were passing thro’ the hands and, in various 
, under the control of the respective governments of the coun- 
of the bank, will seem to the reader at first sight, marvellous; 
evertheless vouched by official and authentic reports of both 
The balance in the National Treasury, at the commencement 
panic session ’ was between four and five millions, the receipts 
all sources for the year between 31 and 32 millions and the 
e of the accruing revenue for the year, from which it did not 
uch, amounted to between 32 and 33 millions, whilst the annual 
ions of the bank in discounts and foreign and domestic ex- 
and according to its own published statements, at the same 
jod amounted to three hundred and forty one millions of dollars, 
nd it had on deposit a yearly average in its vaults of six millions of 
lars belonging to the Federal Government, besides the deposits of 
uals. The revenue of the United States was in due time ap- 
priated by law to specific purposes, but whether this was or was 
done the President could not use a cent of it, until after the pas- 
‘a law authorising him to do so, without exposing himself to 
alties of impeachment; and of the national legislature, by 
2 alone such an act could be passed, it is not too much to say 
a majority in one of its branches—the Senate— were the de- 
artisans of the bank. The public money subject to the indi- 
contro] of the President was that portion constituting the 
E service fund, which was limited to fifteen or twenty thousand 
ts. The extent of contro] with which the President of the bank 
othed over its immense funds, at that particular period, will 
hereafter. I may say here without hesitation or hazard, that 
ny amount of them that could in any way be so directed or 
as to promote the object of the bank his authority was not 
; to embarrassing restrictions of any kind. 
was, I doubt not, under some such views of the relative powers 
two governments that the resolution to compel an extension of 
er of the bank, by the arbitrary exercise of those with which 
armed, was formed after the Presidential election of 1832. 
the great men who filled conspicuous parts in the attempt to 
at resolution into effect Nicholas Biddle, then President of 
and Henry Clay, the leading member of the Senate of the 
tates, exerted far greater influence than any of their coadju- 
Biddle represented, upon a claim of authority which has 


634 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


interests of the bank, its stock holders and all who were concerned 
its success and the means it possessed for carrying on the contest 
which they, the bank and its political partisans were about to e 
bark—means without the support of which they could not he 
hoped to succeed. : 

Equally vain and hopeless would the struggle have been witho 
the active co-operation of the political party towards which, althoug 
it had been defeated, Mr. Clay occupied the imposing relation of i 
candidate for the Presidency, and over which he exerted a lead 
ship of unusual absolutism and without his concurrence, therefe 
that co-operation could not have been secured. There was nothi 
in the plan of operations, which was devised as the one best adapt 
to the respective conditions of the bank and its political suppor te 
that was either repulsive to Mr. Clay’s feelings or otherwise ca 
ed to prevent him from embarking in it. Whether its first suggesti 
came from Mr. Biddle or from himself will probably never be knoy 
Its character reflected the bitter and disappointed emotions exci 
by the adverse result of the election, over which both were broodin 
and it was quite as likely to have originated in the breast of one 
of the other. In firmness, intelligence and general capacity 
were entirely equal to the parts they were expected to perform in 
execution. Mr. Clay possessed a measure of physical and me 
courage and of readiness to assume responsibility approaching if 
equalling that universally conceded to his great rival Gen. Ja 
Mr. Biddle was a prominent member of a highly respectable 
long creditably connected with the public service, in war as 
in peace; a family which, from an early time in our history, 
cupied a distinguished position in society and were favorably kx 
throughout a large portion of our country, for personal we 
and gallant bearing. ° Altho’ his official conduct as President 01 
bank, in the matter brought under discussion in these pages, hast 
and always will continue to be with me the subject of unqualified eon 
demnation it is due to truth to say that his private and pers 
character has never, to my knowledge, been successfully impeat 
T knew him from an early period of my life, had considerable it 
course with him, which was not even interrupted by our political 
ferences but was always agreeable and, I have no reason to dé 
on both sides—politics apart—sincerely friendly. The only men 
of his family with whom I am acquainted is his son, Major Bid 
towards whom I have imbibed feelings of high respect and affection 
ate regard. 

Having thus spoken of the general abilities and characters - 
two principal leaders in the political crusade which I am abot 


°MS. VI, p. 45. 


—_ © 
-> ae 


a _ AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 635 | 


am constrained to add that the judgments of both in 
9 the probable effects of the course they had marked out 
selves and their friends upon the feelings and opinions 
t body of the people were, in my humble estimation, very 
Mr. Clay could not have shut his eyes to the political 
aces involved in the struggle before him, nor did he affect 
If it proved a failure entire political prostration of its 
m the ratio of their prominence, must be the result— 
phe of which; as the leader in chief, his would be the largest 
f successful it would, in the natural course of things, raise 
er to the Presidency. Having been already twice over- 
a his aspirations in that direction there was no process of 
by which he could avoid the conclusion that the present 
must be his last chance for that high distinction. He so 
lered the matter and laid down, as his first requirement—one 
a was to be distinctly and irrevocably recognized by the bank, 
ider no extremities, to be lost sight of—that there should not 
n this occasion, as there had been before, a divided leadership. 
his the reader will, before the account of these transactions is 
be made very certain. He needed the co-operation of both 
r and Calhoun. That of the latter was indispensable. Mr. 
rs not so much so, but highly desirable, and Mr. Clay hoped 
in both. From Mr. Calhoun he could apprehend no such 
ip as has been alluded to; in respect to Mr. Webster that 
n stood on different ground and it was toward him, there- 
the requisition of which I have spoken was aimed—trust- 
| reasoning from the past he thought he might safely do, 
influence of the bank over Mr. Webster’s action to keep the 


s were ultimately satisfied in regard to both of the gentlemen 
For his success with Mr. Webster, however, he was, in all 
bility, indebted, as the reader will hereafter see, to an agency 

han his own or the bank’s and of which he was not apprised 


eg 


CHAPTER XLIV. 


Of the details of the bank plan of campaign, as it stood at the 
close of the session of 1832,—I can of course only speak from infer- 
ences drawn—with such advantages of position for drawing 
as I have before pointed out—from facts of undoubted autho 
The reader will judge for himself of the correctness of my in 
ences and accord to them the credit to which he may think thei 
entitled. Having for its leading and only avowed object the 
chartering of the bank that plan was necessarily constructed ¥ 
special reference to the actual condition of the several powers 
the Federal Government. No direct action of the people, by w. 
that condition might be seasonably varied, was allowable under 
Constitution before the existing charter of the bank would hay 
expired: it was only through new or changed views by which thei 
minds could be impressed and unsettled, that they might be inducec 
to exert an influence over the course of their representatives 
and thus to promote or to retard the adoption of public meas 
bearing on the general subject. In the Executive branch no ¢ 
had taken place. President Jackson had been re-elected for a t 
extending beyond the bank’s charter, his opposition to it had 
placed in his Veto-message on grounds that could not be n 
and he had been made, if possible, still more absolute agai 
by the subsequent abuses of its power. The federal element in th 
Senate, altho’ it had been somewhat reduced by the election, w 
greatly strengthened as against the administration by its more pe 
fect union with the friends of Mr. Calhoun. The House of B 
sentatives had undergone a great change in all respects and 
ticularly on the question of the bank, a majority of friends 
administration having been returned which, tho’ not half so 
as in the previous Congress, was believed to be not only compe 
of better stuff in general but especially reliable on that questi 

Further effort to obtain the passage of an act for the desi 
tension of the charter of the bank from a legislature comp 
three separate branches, the consent of every one of whi 
necessary to the validity of the grant, in despite of the know 
settled hostility of one branch and the all but certain opp 
of another (both of which held their offices by a tenure rea 

beyond the limit of the existing charter) was an undertaking 
most men would have looked upon as desperate. But Messrs. Bidk 
636 : 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 637 


y did not regard their situation in a light so unfavorable. 
did not see, or affected not to see any obstacles in these undis- 
ed facts to the accomplishment of their objects which could not 
reome by a vigorous application of the means at the command 
e bank, supported by its political allies. Of the particular 
L er of those means we will speak hereafter; for the present 
et it suffice to say that they bore no analogy to those which, spring- 
ne from a conviction in the breasts of suitors of the justice of their 
ations, consist of arguments and explanations in behalf of 
they ask. Whatever may have been their confidence in the 
of their petition, which it is not necessary to consider here, 
s of that description were, in the present case, deliberately laid 
as having already been resorted to without avail and as espe- 
y unpromising under existing circumstances. The only appeal 
hat, in their view of the matter, was still open to them and promised 
mccess was one which hazarded the unbiased and deliberate opinions 
£ public men, and of the communities for which they acted, as an in- 
spicious agency for the solution of public questions, as entirely 
neous and in the last degree sinister in its nature and which, 
ead of enlightening and fortifying men’s minds, served only to 
iider and subvert their judgments and carried in its train the 
st evils to the public welfare. If they were enabled to carry 

bill thro’ the House of Representatives by the use of the 
they contemplated, altho’ not availing much, in the first in- 
nce, towards the accomplishment of their immediate object— 
, advancing them no further than they reached in the first 
sle—such a result would, in their estimation, open to them 
ces of future success of greater value than the cost of an imme- 
triumph however expensive that might be. It would go far 
divest the decision of the preceding Presidential election of the 
ience it had acquired, and to which it was entitled, as a declara- 
ion of the will of the majority of the people, expressed in a con- 
titutional form, against the continuance of the bank. Means potent 
ough to drive the House of Representatives, which had been chosen 
- such circumstances, from its integrity and duty would, it was 
believed, if they failed to be operative upon the President, yet 
the supporters of the administration in both Houses to give 
in sufficient numbers to secure for the bill a constitutional ma- 
over the Veto. The President might die in the course of the 
ele, an event which, from his advanced age and physical debil- 
seemed at the time not unlikely, and, in that contingency, his 
tional successor might not prove to possess the firmness 
7 to maintain the position he had occupied, a chance easily 
ned at least as furnishing an additional ground of hope. If 
ll other calculations failed, the prostration of the existing adminis- 


638 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. an 


tration, the election of a friend of the bank as the next President an 
the establishment of a new bank upon the foundation of the ok 
were ‘last resorts’ on which men of temperaments so sanguine ; 
were those of Messrs. Clay and Biddle could not hesitate to - ely 
with entire confidence. 4 
That such, or something very like them, were their views of the 
subject and such the nature and general outlines of their plan, as it 
stood at the close of that session, is fairly inferable from significan 
occurrences, both before and after, the character and details of whi ch 
are neither matter of dispute nor difficult of interpretation. 
The removal of the deposits enabled the bank to change the method 
and form of the measure for its relief much to its advantage. This 
at first, was from necessity intended to be a simple bill to extend th 
charter; that which was actually proposed was a joint-resolutior 
to restore the deposits to the place from whence they had been re 
moved, which, if if had been adopted would, inevitably, have led t 
a re-charter. We shall see hereafter the reasons why this chang 
was an improvement in the bank’s position. 4 
The possible inflexibility of an adverse majority° in the ney 
House of Representatives was certainly a formidable difficulty bu 
not sufficient to discourage the bank or its leading supporters. Wh 
those representatives were, what their characters and capacities, the 
firmness, their spirit, scattered as they were throughout the extend. 
Country, could as yet be little known, and much room for hope ws 
therefore left to those who had been accustomed to speculate upa 
the weakness of public men and trained in the ways by which 
could be influenced. These uncertainties could only be defini 
settled at the next session of Congress—then comparatively far of 
It would, at all events, be a new thing under the sun that a bank 0 
the United States should for a long time remain in a minority j 
either branch of the National Legislature. The controlling inflv 
of the first bank in the first Congress was notorious, and it may > 
be doubted whether, as far, at least, as respected the bank’s 
concerns, that influence had been much less over any of its successor 
To the popular branch of the first Congress under Gen. Jac 
administration, which immediately preceded that whose pr 
character they were canvassing, there had been elected a majori 
more than sixty avowed friends of the administration, or “J. 
men,” as they were called. Yet before the expiration of its se 01 
session the bank had acquired sufficient influence over that body 
obtain from it the passage of a bill to extend its charter notwit 
standing full knowledge that the measure had been introduced at b 
early period—so long before the expiration of its then chartered 


*) 
t4 


° MS. VI, p. 50, 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 639 


rs and rights—with the express purpose of being used to pre- 
Jackson’s re-election if he should interpose his Veto; a design 
ally admitted by the Senator from Pennsylvania who presented 
memorial for the re-incorporation of the ranki In the present 
e the majority in favor of the administration was less than half 
number and among them were some untried men. It was not 
refore surprising that the bank and its advocates entered upon 
the undertaking of converting the second House of Representatives— 
‘as they had done for the first—with the confidence which was ob- 
‘served in all their movements. 
1 The agency selected on the second occasion for the development of 
‘their joint powers and for the attainment of their respective purposes 
‘afforded a striking illustration of the tenacity of the impressions 
which really great men, sincere in their opinions and having the 
faculty of winning the hearts and persuading the judgments of 
others, sometimes stamp on the minds of their followers, especially 
‘when those opinions had been gradually crystalized and shaped into 
f partisan creed. That the people might always and could only suc- 
cessfully be governed through their individual interests or through 
their fears was a doctrine which Alexander Hamilton held with the 
‘sincerity and avowed with the manly candor which pre-eminently dis- 
“inguished his character. No one who has made himself in any con- 
siderable degree acquainted with our political history can be ignorant 
be this fact, or of the zeal with which he inculcated that doctrine, 
and of all our public men there has not been one who made such du- 
| table impressions of the convictions of his own mind on those of 
bas and followers. By far the largest portion of those to whose 
management the affairs of the bank were committed and also of the 
arty by which it was sustained was composed of his surviving dis- 
‘iples and their descendants reared in and still devoted to the same 
‘aith. The extraordinary effort they made, in the first instance, to 
nlist the favor of the people on the side of the bank and to secure 
their support for its candidates by the most assiduous and the most 
lavish appeals to particular interests has been described in the pre- 
eee pages, as well as the failure which attended it and every other 
that direction. What more natural than that having failed in the 
:pplication of one of the only two elements of political influence by 
hich Hamilton believed that the action of the public mind could 
e rightly directed, his political disciples, the early and late admirers 
f his creed, should resort to the other, or that Mr. Clay, whose con- 
ersion to that creed—bank and all—had become complete should 
ot co-operate only but be the chief leader in the enterprise. Hence 
e origin of the plan which was carried out with such unrelenting 
igor—that of employing the vast means at the disposal of the bank 


640 — AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, = 
= - Dt h 
in deranging the credits of the Country and of embarrassing 
concerns to an extent sufficient to create wide spread distress a 
infuse intense alarm for the safety of its every interest into all t 
_ ramifications of a great community—to excite public indi 
against the Executive branch of the Government by imputing the 
disastrous occurrences to the interposition of the President? Ve 
and to the necessity he had wantonly imposed on the bank of pi 
paring to wind up its affairs, the evils of which they (the bank lea 
ers) had foretold, and to obtain, by means of the extensive pan 
thus produced, a control over the action of the public mind 
would enable the projectors of these criminal schemes not only 
mark out for the newly elected House of Representatives the cour 
it should pursue but to gain in the sequel, possession of the Gener 
Government. : “-_ 
Whether those derangements in all our business relations, the « 
stacles they presented to public and private prosperity and the d 
tress produced by them were caused by the action of the Fy 
Government, or of either of its Departments in relation to the #l 
existing bank of the United States, or were systematically contri 
by the bank itself, as is here stated, to subserve bank and pz 
purposes, although long and hotly disputed, has ceased to be re o 
as an open question by our people. The judgment of the Count) 
after full hearing and mature consideration, pronounced them to h 
been parts of a criminal plot devised and carried out to force a ¢ 
tinuance of chartered privileges from an unwilling Governmen: 
people. In the end that decision was generally concurred in 
and there may still be found a straggling dissentient from 
mon sentiment and, for obvious reasons, the sentiment itself 
more or less freely avowed by some than by others, but the con 
of its justness is, nevertheless, in our time almost universal. 
by thus regarding it and by resuming the management of th 
ness concerns with the means that were left to them that the 
of the United States relieved themselves as far and as fast 
could, from the injurious effects of a severe temporary exci 
the fruit of misplaced confidence in those who had raised 
sinister purposes. They shook off an incubus the attempt to ; 
which upon them had convulsed the Country; every appre. 
for the success and stability of our political institutions 
quieted and our business interests and relations were in time 
to the condition in which they stood at the commencement 
selfish and unprincipled war that had been waged against t 
against the honor and welfare of the nation by and in beha 
the U. S. bank. 


lf 


- a 


‘ 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. _ 641 


Tt is of that great struggle—the fiercest, more disturbing, more 
fuential upon the prospects of the public men of the day, and 
tening greater danger to the vital principles of free govern- 
nent than any to which those principles have been exposed in this 
Jountry since the recognition of our national independence—of its 
a st striking incidents and of its issue that I propose to speak. 
Unprecedented pecuniary embarrassments having been chosen as 

he groundwork of the contemplated panic the bank was of course 
ed to as the leading and most efficient agent for their production. 
ding the principal strings and to a great extent controlling the 
lirection of the enormous amount of three hundred and forty mil- 
ions of the moneyed operations of the Country it was necessary that 
the business affairs of the latter should have been indeed in a palmy 
ondition to have put it out of the power of that institution to intro- 
duce any desired extent of derangement in its credits and in the 
ystems by which they were regulated. The bank entered upon its 
allotted part of the work with the alacrity and energy which dis- 
— the operations of large monied institutions moved by the 
yord of command and with a fees of recklessness in respect of its 
bligations to the Country, to the Government by which it had been 
ated and to the provisions and reservations of its charter which 
thing short of its desperate condition could have inspired. Of its 
asures and plans to forward its designs, devised during the recess 
and continued during the ensuing session of Congress, I will, in this 
e, notice those only which have a direct bearing upon ee imme- 
a laisjécts of the confederates, viz: the padecaiaes of the major- 
of the anti-bank men whom the people had elected to the coming 
of Representatives and the excitation and demoralization of 
: public mind by means of a pecuniary panic. These consisted— 
First: of the steps that were taken to supersede the action of the 
ular and only board of directors authorized by the charter in 
rard to all the important movements of the bank which it desired 
conceal from the knowledge of the Government; of these the most 
portant were the substitution of what was called the “ Exchange 
mmittee,” composed of only five directors, of whom the President 
the bank was one and the other four were selected by him, and 
bestowment of all but unlimited power on this Committee, whose 
were confidential and from whose councils the Government 
ectors were invariably excluded ; 

condly: of those by which power was given to °its President 
the funds of the institution, including the money of the Govern- 
» as means for operating upon public opinion, without requir- 


i . ° MS. VI, p. 55. 
_ 127483°—vo1r 2—20——- 41 


642 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


ing him to render vouchers of their disbursement to the regular 
board or in any way to account to it for the uses he made of them, to 
an extent, amply sufficient to enable him to exercise all the influence 
that could be acquired by the application of money over the pub ic 

press, over influential individuals and over members of Congress; 
Thirdly: of the movements and measures of the Exchange Com- 
mittee to derange the credits of the Country and to spread th e 
pecuniary embarrassments over the length and breadth of the land 
by which the desired panic was produced. 
Others may be briefly noticed in the course of this review, and even 
of these the substance only can be stated. To describe them respec- 
tively in detail would require a volume, nor is it indispensable to de 
more than I have proposed as the record of them in all their origina! 
fullness is preserved in our public archives, to which the reader, whi 
desires to test the accuracy of my statements of the leading facts ot 
the correctness of the deductions I have made from them or to obtaim 
ampler views of the subject can refer. 
The Government held one fifth of the capital stock of the bank 
viz: seven millions of dollars out of thirty five millions. It kept it 
its vaults, of public monies, an average annual amount of six million 
more, on general deposit and, of course, subject to the use of the bank 
It had conferred on that institution vast powers which, it was be 
lieved, could, and trusted would be used for the advantage of 
Government and of the Country at large as well as for that of th 
bank, but it was also well understood that all their important inte! 
ests might be made to suffer if the management of the affairs of U 
bank was not strictly guarded and closely watched. Partly 1 
necessity, at all events rightfully and wisely the Government hat 
assumed the largest share of the responsibility of that watchfulne : 
and, to enable it to discharge the duties it thus assumed with success, 
powers were reserved to it and restrictions and duties imposed upon 
the bank by the provisions of its charter which would, it was va 1 
hoped, be amply sufficient for that purpose. It was, among ot 
things pointing in the same direction, provided by the Charter t 
“for the management of the affairs of the said Corporation ” 3 
should be twenty five directors, five of whom should be annua 
appointed by the President of the United States, by and with 
advice and consent of the Senate, and the residue should be annue 
elected by the stockholders “ other than the United States,” anc 
was further provided that “not less than seven directors shall con- 
stitute a board for the transaction of business.” These solemn sti 
lations, notwithstanding that the latter was one of the fundamer 
articles of the constitution of the bank and that both together em 
braced the most material provisions for the management of the a fa rs 
- ; 


4 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN.VAN BUREN. 643 


the corporation, upon the integrity of which the security of im- 
e public interests depended, that institution permitted, nay en- 
ged and assisted its President to set at naught by the appoint- 
and action of the “ Exchange Committee” to which I have 
ed. 

That there may be no mistake as to this cardinal step in these 
roceedings, through which impunity was expected to be secured 
most of the lawless acts that followed, I repeat the words in 
ch Chief Justice Taney, then Secretary of the Treasury, officially 
mmmunicated the matter to both Houses, at the commencement of 
panic session, in the face of the able and active friends of the 
on the floors of Congress: 


: 

wiv 

“iM 
{ 


stead of a board constituted of at least seven directors, according to the 
r, at which those appointed by the United States have a right to be 
ent, many of the most important money transactions of the bank have been 
still are placed under the control of a committee of which no one 
the public directors has been allowed to be a member since the commence- 
of the present year. This Committee is not even elected by the board 
the public directors have no voice in their appointment. They are chosen 
he President of the bank; and the business of the institution, which ought 
e decided on by the board of directors, is, in many instances, transacted by 
Committee and no one has a right to be present at their proceedings but 
President and those whom he sha!l please to name as members of this 
mmittee. Thus loans are made unknown at the time to a majority of the 
rd and paper discounted which might probably be rejected at a regular 
ting of the directors, the most important operations of the bank are some- 
mes resolved on and executed by this Committee and its measures are, it 
pears designedly and by regular system, so arranged as to conceal from the 
of the Government transactions in which the public interests are 
sly involved.* 


hat the truth of this statement could not be denied was, in various 
S, unreservedly admitted as well by the bank as by its supporters 
ongress. When Mr. Taney’s report of his reasons for removing 
e d eposits, the document in which the statement is contained, was 
ved in the Senate Mr. Clay moved to take it up and to fix a 
for its consideration without referring it to a committee. Mr. 
on alluded to the various charges of misconduct against the 
which it contained, and upon which the Secretary relied as 
ns for the removal, and submitted whether it was not due to 
bank, to the Country and to the Senate to have the truth of 
charges enquired into before the Senate proceeded to decide 
the sufficiency of the reasons they furnished for the step 
h the Secretary had taken. Mr. Clay, without direct reply to 
‘gestion, persisted in his motion. A day having been appointed 
e action of the Senate upon the Secretary’s report he offered 


1Report of Secretary of the Treasury, Dec. 3, 1833. 


644 AMERICAN ‘HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


resolutions! declaring the reasons assigned by that ‘atiese ‘to 
insufficient and highly censuring the conduct of the President. 1 
the matter, which were discussed fae three months. 
Mr. Petey? s statement was never refuted either by the bani 
by its supporters in Congress, but, on the contrary, not only w 
a challenge interposed by a hostile Senuen to go into the investig: 
tion of its truth declined but the investigation itself was vival 
refused thro’ the action of the friends of the bank, they consti tin 
a majority of the Senate. It would, therefore, be an act of super 
gation to add another word here to establish its correctness. Am 
wrong in assuming that it would be an equal waste of time t 
enlarge upon the subject for the purpose of establishing the utter 
reckless and wholly inexcusable, not to say criminal character 
these proceedings? No upright and ingenuous mind, whatever m 
have been its impressions in respect to other points in the con 
can avoid being forced to that conclusion. Feeling that this 
be so, that they present, taken together, a transaction neither ¢ 
illegality nor the immorality of which can be made more inte 
by argument or aggravated by denunciation and which, in 
considered, may, without prejudice to the cause of truth, be al 
to stand substantially in the light in which the bank has pla 
without coloring or comment, I will so treat it. But in thus dee 
to probe deeper proceedings which were so exceptionable on 
face we cannot, if we would, ignore their plain and conclusive int 
pretation of the character and design of the subsequent acts of 
_bank. If there had been nothing in the establishment and action 
the “ Exchange Committee ”-that shunned the light because its de 
were evil Mr. Biddle would have placed in Mr. Clay’s hands 
twenty four hours after the presentation to the Senate of Mr. 
report, an authentic statement of facts sufficient to turn 
of public indignation against that incorruptible officer for hi 
but in that case unfounded arraignment of the bank. No 
would have been more acceptable to Mr. Clay than that of 
ishing, at the threshold of the session a man whom the suppe 
of the bank disliked to a degree only less than that in which 
held President Jackson himself, and whose official course became 
central point to which the eee of all parties was sical 
and continued to be directed during the remainder of the 
Mr. Clay’s unfair attack on Mr. Taney, on the ground of his iz 
in the Union bank of Maryland, which the latter turned 
much power upon his assailant, would, in that case, never ha 
thought of. But the record of the eee of the “ Exchang 
mittee” was, from the beginning designed to be a sealed bo 


1December 26, 1833. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 645 


Was no possible imputation to which it would not be better for 
k to submit than to have those seals broken and its inner 
revealed to the knowledge of the Government and to the 
of the people. 
Df the measures which were concocted in that secret and irr espon- 
e Council of Five, and which were attempted to be carried into 
t under its powerful auspices, I can here only make room for a 
ef f notice of one of great interest by which the public mind was, 
he sequel, profoundly moved. When General Jackson arrived at 
Presidency our national debt stood at ° about sixty millions, and 
object was hearer his heart than that of its extinguishment during 
r dministration. The height of his remaining ambition was to 
e the great Republic by the side of the Empires of the old world, 
jo yi ng, in addition to her other glories, the proud distinction of 
Pires of any public debt—that wasting canker of the nations. 
the appropriations for the payment of the national debt, recom- 
mended to Congress by the Secretary of the Treasury, by order of 
s President, in December 1832, had been fully made and applied, 
prould have succeeded in that the last year of his first official 
m nin reducing the debt (including the payment of interest) fifty- 
# million of dollars since his elevation to the Presidency. This 
ald have left the whole amount due on the first of January, 1833, 
ra little over seven millions, for the discharge of which the 
7 ermment stock in the bank of the United States, with the ac- 
ruing dividends, was considered amply sufficient. This assumed 
peduction included an item of eighteen millions to be paid in 1832, 
sh embraced thirteen millions—the whole amount of the old 
8 per cents. funded by the act of 1790, and constituting the last 
‘alt ment of our revolutionary debt. It was advertised for re-im- 
rsement on the first of October, 1832, and for that purpose the 
y department had made all the provision suppesed to be 
ssary at the different loan offices. On the very eve of the accom- 
ument of this great object and but a few days before the Presi- 
's annual Mescare of December 1832 in which he congratulated 
gress and the Country on its consummation, it was discovered 
Joes not appear how) that the bank, through its “ Exchange Com- 
” had, in the month of July preceding, and without even the 
tledge of the Government, sent a secret agent to London to 
fe an arrangement with Baring Brothers & Co. for the post- 
ent of three millions of that stock, for which they were the 
mts, and also two millions in addition, for six, nine, or twelve 
ths after the date designated by our Government for its reim- 
ment; that the Barings had agreed with the agent of the bank 


°MS. VI, p. 60. 


east 


646 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, = 


- to buy up the three per cent stocks upon the best terms at wh 
they could be procured—to charge the bank with the outlay, to 
tain the certificates themselves and, if the amount of the stock so pt 
chased and that retained by the holders should be less than fi 
millions, to make up the deficiency in case the bank should 
to draw for it—and that the purchase of the stock was a 
made to the extent of a million and a half; that, on receiving inf 
mation of this purchase, Mr. Biddle had discovered that the ba 
had no right to purchase any public debt whatever and that the gs 
he was taking might operate as a forfeiture of the charter for 
renewal of which he was making such prodigious exertions; tl 
he had disavowed so much of the arrangement made by his ag 
as related to the purchase of stock, on the ground of a w 
power in the bank to carry it into effect and had substituted i 
thereof a proposition that the Barings should send to the bank 
certificates, that it should receive the money for the owners, pas 
to their credit on the books of the bank which should pay them 
subsequent interest, quarterly, until October’ 1833. 
It is apparent on the face of these proceedings that the bai 
immediate object was to add, for its protection against poss 
contingencies, five millions to its disposable funds. To secure 
accommodation, independent of its pecuniary engagements, it 
curred the responsibility of a studiously concealed but most fiz 
violation of duty as the fiscal agent of the Government, a 
which acquired the distinction of being the only one of its 
nent transgressions which its friends in the House, altho’ w 
palliate, did not attempt to justify. The time at which 
step was taken—only four months before the Presidential 
upon the result of which its fate was supposed to depend, 
hazard of exposure shew very conclusively that its interes 
movement or its necessity for the money was of the most 
character, and that whatever its motives they looked prinet 
its own welfare. What was the precise channel thro’ wh 
bank was to be benefitted by that acquisition to its disposabl 
or to what particular purposes the five millions were design 
applied are undivulged secrets of which the public, will, 
never be fully informed.t It is sufficient for the condem 
the bank for us to know that those funds had been set apart 


b 


1 The inference here is unjustified. The drain upon the Bank’s funds, 
causes, had been enormous; the financing of private business enterprises had 
the precedence over the Government’s interests and the money was needed for f 
charge of that portion of the public debt the administration desired to cancel. 
ernment deposits, theoretically in the Bank’s vaults, in reality were lar 
elsewhere in commercial activities, and for this situation, of course, the 
was entirely responsible. The matter is discussed at some length in Cattarall’s 
Bank of the United States (Chicago, 1903), pp. 267-273. | 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 647 


eré consecrated to a sacred and glorious object—the payment of 
he last remnant of the debt which had been contracted for the 
hieverhent of our independence; that an important measure of the 
vernment was thwarted through the infidelity of the bank and 
e nation compelled to continue for a time liable for a debt which 
it was ready and desirous to extinguish; that this was brought about 
by the secret management of a committee of an institution which was 
the custodian of the people’s strong box and the trusted fiscal agent 
of their Government. 

_ The instructions for the secret agent? sent to London were, as it 
erwards appeared, dated on the 18” of July, 1832, barely a week 
after the date of the President’s veto Message and closer still upon 
the failure of the bank to obtain a constitutional majority in the Sen- 
ate. They were issued and the agent selected whilst its spirited but 
eckless President was yet deliberating with the no less reckless lead- 
rs of the party which had made the cause of the bank its own and 
maturing in concert plans for the ensuing political campaign in which 
the fate of that party, for a long time at least, and the fate of the 
Constitution were to be decided. 

The unprecedented success of President Jackson’s efforts for the 
payment of the national debt, during his first term had already been 
recognized by his fellow citizens as worthy of a civic crown and 
promised to be of no small weight in his favor in the approaching 
struggle. The additional éclat which his persevering exertions in 
that direction would derive from an announcement promulgated on 
( me first of October, a single month before the election, that the last 
ent of our revolutionary debt had on that day been paid and so ap- 
Pp propriately paid under the administration of one who might be called 
a shoot from the seed of that ever memorable contest, was a considera- 
ion not likely to be overlooked by astute politicians such as led the 
bank forces, especially when so much had been staked on the canvass 
fo be influenced by that annunciation.* Had it not been for the fate 
which subsequently befell the bank, at a period not too remote to 
oo the inference that its condition may already have been 
sufficiently precarious to make necessary these disreputable transac- 
‘ions to guard against a collapse pending the canvass, we might not 
5 ave looked for other than political motives for their commission, but, 
viewing those scenes from the point we now occupy and in the light 
of i the developments at which I have glanced, it is difficult to resist 


2 


1 Gen. Thomas Cadwalader. 

2Kt was not overlooked, but Biddle’s plan for accomplishing it was in the nature of a 
r: with the renewal of the charter as the consideration. Biddle’s handling of the 
was at fault; his misunderstanding of Jackson and presumption in assuring his 
s that the charter would be renewed caused suspicion and irritation in Jackson's 
nd that counted heavily against the Bank thus early in the struggle. 


648 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, — 


the conclusion that the material interests and condition of the i 
tion furnished the strongest inducements to its desperate steps. 
Favored by the intense national excitement and through the 
glery of financiering—the sinister side of an otherwise highly u 
ful and honorable art—in the occult mysteries of which, unhap 
for himself and for the bank, he thought himself an adept, Mr. 
Biddle was able to prevent for a season a successful scrutiny into 
his motives and to confuse the subject sufficiently to qualify public 
feeling, but in the sequel his disguises have been broken through and 
his acts unreservedly condemned. a 

The separate and comparatively irresponsible control given tc 
their President by the board of Directors over the funds of the bank 
including of course those of the Government, avowedly for elec 
tioneering purposes, is the next subject I propose to notice. j 
often the case with similar abuses this had its beginning in an incor 
siderable and perhaps excusable transaction, but, as usual also, i 
increased in extent and boldness with the growth of the motive i 
which it originated and the impunity which was extended to it 
the caution and moderation of its earlier stages were openly dis 
carded. An article appeared in the American Quarterly Revi 
highly complimentary to the bank, and, in November, 1830, the b 
passed a resolution authorizing the President to take such meas 
in regard to its circulation at the expense of the bank as he m 
deem most conducive to the interests of the latter. Not conten 
himself with doing what he was authorized to do the Presi 
caused to be re-published and circulated other papers and d 
ments ° having a similar tendency, and, in March, 1831, he sugge 
to the board the propriety of empowering him to cause “to be 
pared and circulated such documents and papers as might commi 
cate to the people information in regard to the nature and opera 
of the bank”—which suggestion was promptly carried out. Th 
penses thus incurred in the years 1831 and 1832 (those of the 
dential canvass) amounted to eighty thousand dollars, as far 
Government Directors were enabled to obtain an account of 
Finding no vouchers for many of these other than the Presi 
order, and that often too general to shew to whom and for wh 
money was paid, those directors, alarmed by what they had see: 
by discovering similar operations in progress upon an increased 
offered to the general board a resolution asking a specific accor 
those expenditures and of the purposes for which they had bee: 
curred and of the names of persons to whom the moneys had bee 
paid. This proposition, which seemed to be very proper and 
able, was promptly voted down. They next moved to rescind 
resolution of March, 1831, under which those exceptionable te) 


° MS. VI, p. 65. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 649 


een taken. The consideration of that proposition was deferred 
the board, on the motion of one of its members, for the purpose 
eceiving the following as a substitute: 

Wed, that the board have confidence in the wisdom and integrity of the 
ent and in the propriety of the resolutions of the 30th November, 1830, 
the 11th March, 1831, and entertain a full conviction of the necessity of 
‘wed attention to the object of those resolutions and that the President be 
orized and requested to continue his exertions for the promotion of such 
Ci. ° 

he Government Directors, determined it seems to leave the bank 
hout an excuse for refusing to give the particulars they had asked 
f past expenditures, offered the following amendments to the pre- 
eding resolution : 

olved, That while this board repose entire confidence in the integrity of 
resident they respectfully request him to cause the particulars of the ex- 
itures made under the resolutions of 30th November 1830 and 11th March 
to be so stated that the same may be readily submitted to and examined 
e board of Directors and the stockholders. 

solved, that the said resolutions be rescinded and that no further expendi- 
be made under the same. 

hese amendments were voted down and the substitute was forth- 
adopted. This took place in August 1833, a few weeks after 
bank had despatched its secret agent to England to thwart the 
ernment in its purpose to redeem the three per cent stock, an act 
h of itself, and more especially when considered in connection 
| the virtual sequestration of the Government funds to satisfy a 
adless claim for damages on account of the protest of the French 
;* and in regard to the Pension Agency,’ shows that the bank then 
rded itself as engaged in a struggle a l’outrance and deemed every 
sure allowable that might serve to advance its objects—the only 
on which this last step in regard to the funds of the Government 
be accounted for.* 

regard to the construction Mr. Biddle felt himself at liberty to 
upon a resolution so worded, its passage being accompanied by 
xpress refusal to call upon him to say what he had done with the 
es already expended save those the outlay of which he had been 
d to account for, there is no room for misapprehension. Nor 
| any doubt exist as to what he deemed the most eligible channel 
gh which the power thus conferred could be exerted with the 
test advantage. It was doubtless intended to operate through the 


House Hxecutive Documents, 23d Congress, 1st Session, Nos. 2 and 12 for reports 

€ government directors to Jackson. 

he French Indemnity bill the damage claim for which was finally decided against 

ank by the U. S. Supreme Court on.a point of law. 

control of the pension funds was a dispute of some years standing. Here again 
lovernment’s attitude was not above criticism. 

2 . Buren, apparently, could not conceive of the possibility that the Bank’s struggles 

part, efforts to preserve its financial strength to meet obligations, the imprudent 
tion, of which was an entirely different question. 


“* ae - 


<<aee 


650 - AMERICAN HISTORIGAL ASSOCIATION. 


means thus supplied upon all who were in a situation to exert 
influence upon publi¢ opinion or immediately upon the pendin, a 
tion, upon the conductors and proprietors of the public press, U 
outsiders who wrote for it, upon members of Congress and upon in 
ential individuals who were capable of shaping their course. H 
much was done in any or in all of those directions, what attemp 
were made by direct applications of money or by nominal loans up 
straw security, of the-existence of which we have heard from vari 
quarters, to influence the action of the new House of Repre 
tives—the important pivot upon which the movement of the bank; 
its allies during the approaching session of Congress was destined 
turn, will never be fully known. The empty vaults of that q 
powerful institution at a not very remote subsequent period w 
seem to mock the notion that nothing was done in that way: hi 
five millions of bank capital are not wasted in a day. But noth 
can be further from my intention than to say or insinuate, eithe 
these surmises or by anything I have before advanced or may h ) 
after say, unless a change of opinion in this respect on my pal 
distinctly announced, that I believe Mr. Biddle to have been 
of abasing his position to advance his own pecuniary inter 
the phrase runs to “ feather his own nest ”—by the acquisition 
way of illicit gains. I have always regarded him in that res 
a true disciple of Alexander Hamilton, whom I have consid 
free from such reproach as were Washington or Jefferson. Ha 
who never hesitated to jeopard the general for the support 2 
-couragement of special interests, to conciliate the favor and to 
chase thus the adherence of the classes engaged in the latter, w 
never have countenanced the application of the public money in 4 
bribery and would not have survived the consciousness of hayit 
mitted a dollar of it to reach his own pocket unworthily. 
elsewhere spoken of the sacrifice, beyond measure painful, to 
he submitted to prevent the purity of his official character f 
ing exposed to the slightest suspicion by accusations which he 
have defied with safety. Such, I am very confident, was the o 
which his great rival Jefferson had formed of his charac 
which he intended to express to me when, speaking on tha 
kindred subject, he exclaimed “ Hamilton was above that!” or 
such things.” Such was also, as I believe, essentially the 
President Biddle. He engaged in a contest the excitements 
tations of which brought his mind at length to the conviction 
application of all means to influence the conduct of others 
be useful and effectual was allowable but he never saw the d 
persuaded, when he would have failed to turn from the mer 
being himself sustained by the wages of corruption with d d 
and scorn. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 651 
Such power as was given by the action of his board of Directors 
not likely to remain long unemployed in the hands of a man like 
Mr. Biddle, especially as its application looked towards the accom- 
plishment of an object he had so much at heart and in respect to 
which each faculty of his excitable nature had been stirred into ac- 
tion. Everything was doubtless attempted to be affected by it that 
lay within its reach but the great levers by which the public mind 
Ww s to be unsettled, the Country distracted and the in-coming House 
of Representatives driven from the anti-bank position it was ex- 
pected to assume were the prostration of credit and the consequent 
disorganization and depression of the business of the Country which 
were to be brought about thro’ the agency of the bank and at- 
‘tributed to the necessity to which it had been driven of preparing to 
‘wind up its affairs by the refusal to extend its charter, with the em- 
blazonment and exaggerations of the distress thus visited on the land 
to be fulminated during the coming session from the Halls of Con- 
eress.: Of the ability of the bank and its numerous branches, scat- 
tered over the Country, to produce at will such a state of things no 
intelligent man can entertain a moment’s doubt when he calls to mind 
the many millions which passed annually thro’ its hands in the 
shape of discounts, deposits and exchanges, foreign and domestic, to 
which I have before alluded, and the control these gave to it not 
only over most of our business men but also over the State banks—a 
control made almost absolute by the possession of the public de- 

posits. The assumed preliminary arrangements having been com- 
_ pleted the first impulse in that great fiscal and political coup detat 
by the U. S. bank, by which it was designed to discipline the 
| majority in one branch of our National Legislature and to humiliate 
| another, was given in the month of August, 1833. This was followed 
| up by the bank with others in the same direction and having the same 
objects not only until the meeting of Congress but far into the session. 
© Anxious to bring what I desire to say in respect to the conduct 
of the bank in this connection within the narrowest compass con- 
| sistent with what is due to truth, I shall content myself with trans- 
_ ferring to these pages two accounts of it prepared at the time with 
much care by well known and capable gentlemen whose power of 


ihe proposition is not, however, so elemental as Van Buren states it. That the 
nk deliberately engineered a panic is, at least, debatable. During a period of unusual 
siness expansion the Bank made imprudent grants of credit which facilitated and en- 
uraged further expansion, which, in turn, demanded the grant of further credits. This 
ition went far toward creating a financial situation unequal to a sudden, heavy 
in, This strain the Government supplied by adopting its perfectly legitimate plan of 
ng off the public debt—a pet idea of Jackson’s, the political importance of which 
le, apparently, failed to grasp. That the Bank was ruthless in its measures for self- 
ction and that its ruthless contraction of credits to this end was largely responsible 
the panie cannot be gainsaid. 
° MS. VI, p. 70. 


3+. 


652 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. | _ 


condensation is greatly superior to my own and of whose clai 
credit the reader will be at liberty to judge for himself. « 
The first is from the report of Roger B. Taney, then Secretary 
the Treasury and now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of 
United States, of the reasons which had induced him to remove th 
public deposits from the bank, made to both Houses of Congress 
the opening of the panic session. This paper was sent to the Sena 
of which body the enemies of the Administration constituted a 
decided majority, including such men as Clay, Webster, and Calho 
with many others scarcely less able and all abundantly qualified 
talents as well as by facilities for obtaining all necessary statem: 
from the bank, to detect any error of fact or of deduction into w 
Mr. Taney might have fallen; to a body moreover which was soon 
pass upon his own nomination for the high office for which he | 
been selected and which it was not, at that early period of the 
sion, supposed by the sober minded men of either party coul¢ 
brought to strike down a man of a character so singularly unex 
ceptionable without a better excuse than that of expediency or pa 
san prejudice. It was freely and fearlessly committed to the ha 
of men who had the strongest possible temptation to arraign and con 
demn him if it could be shown that he had done injustice to an im 
portant monied institution under the impulse of political hostility, 

Mr. Taney thus speaks of the conduct of the bank upon the sub 
under consideration: 

The situation of the mercantile classes also rendered the usual aids of th 
bank more than ever necessary to sustain them in their business. Their be 
for previous importations were, as before stated, constantly becoming due 
heavy cash duties were almost daily to be paid. The demands of the pu 
upon those engaged in commerce were consequently unusually large and - 
had a just claim to the most liberal indulgence from the fiscal agent of 
Government, which had for so many years been reaping harvests of profits f 


the deposits of the public money. But the bank about this time changed 
course. 


By the monthly statement of the bank dated 2d Aug., 1833, it 
appears that its loans and domestic bills of exchange, pur- 
chased and on hand, amounted to________-_-__________ $64, 160, 


By the monthly statement of the 2d Sept., 1833, they appear 
to have been b 


Reduction in two months___-).. ==) 4, 066, 


By the same papers it appears that the public deposits, including th 
the redemption of public debt, the Treasurer’s and those of the public offie 


Were, im: Auge.) 2 ho 0 og) day ee $7, 599, ¢ 
in! Sept 2s. Soe oe ee Sh ee a eel 9, 182. 
An: (Oct. oI 9, 868, 


eo AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 653 


T hus upwards of six millions of dollars were withdrawn from the business 
e Country by the bank of the United States in the course of two months. 
of itself must have produced a pressure on the money market, affecting 
mmercial transactions. But the curtailment in the bank accommodations 
community was much larger. The policy adopted by the bank of the 
nited States compelled the State banks to take the same course in self defence 
nd the bank of the United States appears to have resorted to the expedient 
rawing from the State banks the balances due in specie and to have hoarded 
ap the article in its own vaults. 


mueust, 1835, that bank had in specie__..-__________-__- $10, 028, 677. 38 ~ 
SLUG pak Se ee a 10, 207, 649. 20 
In TE ES a a ce nn 10, 663, 441. 51 


howing an increase of specie in two months_____-____----___ 639, 764. 13 


his sum it is believed was chiefly drawn from the state banks. To fortify 
mselyes those banks were compelled to call upon their debtors and curtail 
accommodations; and so large a proportion of these calls are always paid 
their own notes that to obtain $100,000 in specie they are probably obliged 
sall for four or five times that amount. To replace the specie taken from 
1em by the bank of the U. States and to provide for their own safety the State 
ks, therefore, must have curtailed from two to three millions of dollars. On 
whole it is a fair estimate that the collections from the community, during 
Se two months, without any corresponding return, did not fall much short 
nine millions of dollars. As might have been expected complaints of a pres- 
ire upon the money market were heard from every. quarter. The balances 
. from the State banks had, during the same time, increased from $368,- 
9.98 to $2,288,573.19 and, from the uncertain policy of the bank, it was appre- 
ded they might suddenly be called for in specie. The State banks, so far 
mm being able to relieve the community, found themselves under the neces- 
of providing for their own safety. 

A yery large proportion of the collections of the bank in August and Septem- 
were in Philadelphia, New York and Boston. In August and September 
le curtailment in Philadelphia was------------ $195, 548. 69 

nerease of public deposits__------—-~--------- 646, 846. 80 


eS 


ual collections by the bank_----------------- $842, 895. 49 
icrease of public deposits Tnw New) York. -=+-22= $1, 396, 597. 24 
Samaneresse of loans__—__------_-____----_- 331, 295. 38 


— 


ual collections of the bank------------------- 1, 065, 301. 86 


ailment in Boston was———------------------ 717, 264. 45 

ase of public deposits__-_------------------ 48, 069. 88 
pial collections of the bank_.__.--_---------- 765, 334.383 765, 334.38 
al collections in the three cities______------- $2, 673, 031. 68 


will be perceived that it was solely thro’ the increase of the public de- 
that the bank raised balances against the State banks in New York, and 
aced in a situation to take from them at its pleasure large sums in specie. 
d when it is considered that those curtailments and collections of the bank 
the United States necessarily compelled the State banks to curtail also we 
e at no loss to perceive the cause of the pressure which existed in the 
mmercial cities about the end of the month of September. It was impossible 


at 


654 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


that the commercial Community could have sustained itself much longer under | 
such a policy. In the two succeeding months the collections of the bank would — 
probably have exceeded five millions more and the State banks would have been > 
obliged to curtail in an equal sum. The reduction of bank accommodations to- 
the amount of nineteen millions of dollars in four months must have almost put 
an end to trade; and before the first of October this pressure in the principal 
commercial cities had become so intense that it could not have been endured — 
much longer without the most serious embarrassments. It was then daily in- 
creasing and, from the best information that I have been able to obtain, I am 
- persuaded that if the public monies received for revenue had been continued to— 
be deposited in the bank of the United States for two months longer and it had 
adhered to the oppressive system of policy which it pursued during the two 
preceding months a wide spread scene of bankruptcy and ruin must have fol- 
lowed. There was no alternative therefore for the Treasury Department but to 
act at once or abandon the object altogether. Duties of the highest character 
would not permit the latter course and I did not hesitate promptly to resort 
to the former. [Niles’ Register, vol. 45, p. 261.] 


The curtailment of the bank subsequent to the preparation of this 
paper, as derived from its own reports, was as follows:—between the 
first of December, which was the day before Congress met and the. 
first of July, 1834, when Congress adjourned, $3,428,132; between the 
first of July and the first of September, $3,965,474; total reduction 
in thirteen months, including that which took place before the first of 
December, $17,100,851 upon a discount line of sixty four millions, at 
which it stood August 1st 1833, when its curtailment commenced; and 
all this was done whilst the Government deposits in the bank had only 
been reduced five millions between the first of August 1833 and ¢ he 
first of August 1834. 

I beg the reader to reperuse and reflect upon the above brief extract 
from Mr. Taney’s report—to observe the clearness, the distinctness 
and the obvious freedom from either reserve or passion which chars 
terize its statement of the facts that belong to the case and the im 
fragable proofs it deduces from them that the acts imputed to the bs nk 
were voluntary and were the results of a preconcerted® plan to disor: 
ganize and break up, at least for a season, the system of credits under 
which the Country was then and had been for a long time carried on 
with fair success and to throw apparently insurmountable obstacles 
in the way of its farther prosecution, to tie up the State banks, hand 
and foot, and, thus manacled, to exhibit to their view the necessit: 
closing their doors as the certain penalty of any assistance they m 
be tempted to afford the Government by the supply of places of dep 0: 
for the public funds in lieu of its own vaults, and, as an unavoidabl 
consequence, to fill the Country with excitement and panic. 

That this was undertaken with a latent design on the bank’s p 
after it had forced an extension of its charter from the fears of 


J 
iC= 
e- 


° MS. VI, p. 75. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 655 


ntry, to reconstruct the system thus rudely arrested is highly 
ble, perhaps undoubted. 

T cannot take it upon myself to say that in the numerous mani- 
stoes of the bank, in the reports of Committees devoted to its sup- 
rt or in public speeches, proceeding from similar sources,—docu- 
ants which, from their obvious design to pervert instead of to main- 
‘ain the truth, soon became obsolete—attempts were not made to over- 
hrow Mr. Taney’s facts and to explode his deductions. But that 
ch attempts were unattended with the slightest success is certain. 
My next extract is from a speech made by Churchill C. Cambre- 
ng, a gentleman who deservedly occupied a high position among 
e ablest and purest of the representatives whom the great city of 
ew York has, from time to time, sent to the National Legislature. 
was a partisan speech made before the Republican young men of 
sw York, in the course of a political campaign, the next after the 
mic session and after the game which had engrossed its attention 
as substantially played out. Tts statements may therefore be taken 
ith a portion, tho’ not a large one, of the allowance which is com- 
nly and properly made in such cases. I have known Mr. Cam- 
eleng long and intimately and I am quite sure that I well under- 
d his character. A North Carolinian by birth and a friend and 
ciple of Nathaniel Macon he has throughout our intercourse dem- 
ted himself to my observation as honest as the steelyard and 
lirect in the pursuit of his purpose as a shot from a culverin. 
is a clear headed, painstaking, indefatigable and conscientious 
ardent in politics but incapable of knowingly saying anything 
advance his cause which he does not believe to be true, and, to 
at least, he always seemed to be as anxious and careful in respect 
his representation of facts as if he was under oath. Indeed I 
e never known a man to whose statements I would more readily 
¢ my own interests. Proudly conscious of the character he had 
ed there was small danger that he would commit himself to 
averments in the presence of his constituents upon a most ex- 
x subject which he had not fully considered. What he said 
e occasion referred to was spoken and published in the vicinity 
e bank, by the side of the most important of its branches, and 
liable, if untrue, to be exposed and contradicted at the moment, 
T know that nothing could have been more mortifying to him, 
from any impeachment of his truthfulness, than to have been 
eted of inaccuracy upon the subject, nor any greater pains 
n to be correct. 

@ first step taken by the bank, [he said] was on the 13th August, last 
(1833)—the second on the 1st of October. The resolutions adopted by 


d ordered that the premium on exchange should be advanced—that no 
should be purchased, except on the Atlantic cities, Mobile and New Or- 


Ab 
“t 


656 _ AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
leans, and at shorter dates—that loans in the interior should be conver 
bills on these cities—that the branches should discontinue receiving the no 
of distant State banks—that the balances against all such banks should 
collected, and the bank immediately commenced a rapid curtailment. The 
measures calculated to ruin our merchants, break our institutions and di 
our currency and exchanges, were adopted because other banks were abo 
be employed to collect the public revenue! Such were the preparations mad 
for an explosion on the meeting of Congress. With the session the cam) ij 
commenced vigorously, its friends in both Houses opened in full ery, whil 
operations of the Exchange Committee were active in every part of the Ui 
The resolutions of the 13th August were expressly designed to arm the bran 
on the Atlantic, and especially the New York branch, with funds in b 
ninety days to create a debt against the local banks. Under the resoluti 
both dates some thirty or forty millions in bills were thrown into the A 
cities, Mobile and New Orleans, for collection. While these millions 
drawn from the diminished resources of our distressed merchants and y 
the local banks were alarmed at their accumulating debts to the branches 
public men were amused with weekly statements of their discounts as an 
dence of their friendship. Armed with these millions in Western drafts 
balances steadily accumulating, the branch at New York would have 
from our city banks their last dollar and would have broken every bank 
Union had not the Secretary of the Treasury, between the 30th September 
the ist April, prevented that branch from collecting $8,760,000—had he 
armed our city institutions with near nine millions to defend the whole G [ 
in this war upon its trade and currency. [Hzxtra-Globe, 1834, page 181.] _ 
The additional details of the steps taken ‘by the bank to invo 
and embarrass the credits and business of the Country (and 
are nowhere so intelligently stated) embraced the fruits of 
ments matured and developments made subsequent to Mr. Ts 
report, and which, as far as they existed when the latter was 
pared were known only to the Exchange Committee and perha 
its political confidants. Both Mr. Taney and Mr. Cambr 
hint, tho’ in different degrees, the removal of the deposits 
measure determined upon in consequence of the curtailment by ¢ 


bank of its line of discount, and on referring to the files of tl 


bank press and other channels thro’ which that institution w 
fended it will be found that those curtailments are justified 


in the main unfounded. The two proceedings ran into each o 
and were used after their appearance to strengthen the resp 
positions which the President and the bank had assumed: the 
notwithstanding, originated in sources substantially if not whol 
independent of each other. 

In respect to his own action, Mr. Taney took the case as it 
at the moment and the reasons and motives by which he was | 
erned in consenting to be the agent for the removal of the 4 le} 
were doubtless precisely such as he described them. But, as ha 


hie 
‘ss 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 657 


eady been in part explained, that measure, if satisfactory arrange- 
ents with the State banks could be made, was in substance de- 
ided upon by President Jackson some three months before Mr. 
raney came into the Treasury Department. The President re- 
garded the question of the continuance of the bank as determined 
y his own re-election and was, from the moment of that event, 
esolved that nothing should be wanting on his part to carry into 
effect the declared will of the people. He had seen enough, in the 
Summer and autumn of 1832, of the reckless use the bank was capable 
of making of the funds under its control to promote its own ends to 
Stand in need of no further proof on that point. The conduct of the 
bank after the result of the election was known satisfied him be- 
yond a doubt that it had determined to continue the war,—a con- 
clusion fully confirmed by the proceedings of the meeting of stock- 
holders in August, carrying out the wishes of Mr. Biddle by in- 
structing the directors to renew the application for a new charter 
at the next session, and he was equally determined that the public 
monies should not, so far as he could rightfully prevent it, again 
constitute part of its resources for the conflict. It was, besides, in- 
dispensable that new places of deposit should be provided, and he 
was the last man likely to postpone so essential a point in his ar- 
rangements until the eve of the battle which it became certain he 
would have to fight ‘o’er again.’ He, therefore, from the month of 
June till its consummation, kept that important measure—the re- 
moval of the deposits—constantly in view, resolved to do nothing 
ashly, nothing that would work unnecessary harm to the bank or 
furnish it with grounds for sinister appeals to public sympathy, but 
as firmly decided to omit or neglect nothing that might be demanded 
by the exigencies of the occasion. He did indeed use the subsequent 
pbuses of its power by the bank, in the paper he submitted to his 
(Cabinet and in his messages to Congress, to strengthen the -position 
he had taken, but he nowhere set them up as° furnishing the 
priginal grounds for taking it. Such was the case also with the 
hank in regard to the measures it adopted to impair the credits of 
she Country, to obstruct its business and to fill it with distraction 
ind panic. ‘These were the bitter fruits of counsels and decisions 
ong anterior to the suggestion of the removal of the public de- 
osits, or perhaps to the thought of removing them, and would have 
een put in operation at the same time and with the same views if 
he deposits had not been removed. 
But altho’ that great measure, which, as far as I know or ever 
lad reason to believe, had its origin in the General’s own breast 
nd in the execution of which at all events he took the lead of all 


¥ ° MS. VI, p. 80. 
_ 127483°—vo1r 2—20—— 42 


658 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. — 


the friends about him availed more than any, perhaps tha 
the others that were adopted to frustrate the “ flagitious schemes o 
the bank ”—(as they were truly and aptly termed by Mr. Appletoi 
of Boston, who had been its early friend) it was not the oc 
of them, ar proved indeed, in many respects, to its confed 
supporters a valuable windfall. It enabled the bank to subs 
for the application for a renewal of its charater, in support of w 
it was at the moment acting, a fresher and far more popular is 
that of seeking redress for a great public wrong which it char, 
to have been committed by an arbitrary and unconstitutional e 
tion of Presidential authority. Under that disguise its supportel 
were enabled to promote its interest more effectually than in an 
other way. It was to them a welcome, change in ‘the front « 
battle’ which relieved for a season the obiene of their exertions a 
hopes from the odium which naturally attaches itself in the pul 
mind to all applications for monopolies, more especially when th 
are supported by exceptionable means and when, as in this instan¢ 
they have been pressed ad nauseam, a 

The strong, tho’ in my judgment, necessary and constitutior 
ground taken by the President in removing Mr. Duane when the I 
ter refused to carry out his policy, after engaging to do so or ft 
resign, enabled the bank to give the new issues which arose 
it a high degree of plausibility by means of the extensive conti 
it had acquired over the public press, presenting as it did a fav 
able opportunity for an appeal to the inveterate and honest pr 
dices of the people against what was called ‘the one man pow 
But these were neither the only nor even the principal adva 
the bank derived from the chance thus afforded to blink, for 
son, the principal question on which the Country was again 
divided, and divided moreover under circumstances more str 
and dangerous than had before existed. There were scatterec 
the Congress and in greater proportion thro’ the body of the 
particularly in the Southern States, a number of clever me 
of whom still occupied distinguished rank in the Democratic ps 
and most of whom had been known for théir constant opposit 
to a national bank on the ground of its unconstitutionality 
these some through private griefs and others by open di 
of opinion from the President on various subjects had been ¢ 
into the ranks of the bank party and were now in their 
desirous that the bank should triumph, if for no other 
than to break down Jackson and the administration. Thee 
did not think the prospects of success as yet sufficiently av 
to justify them in venturing to vote for it direaiae a course Ww 


a L 


1 Nathan Appleton, 


aw AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 659 


juld effecutually impugn their past pretensions, but, whilst not 
lite ripe to support its application for a new charter, they could 
be relied on to take open and decided ground with the bank 
mst the removal of the deposits and in favor of their restora- 
If the passage of a bill or joint resolution directing the public 
sits to be restored could have been procured, some of these men, 
vithout whose votes the bill to extend the charter of the bank 
ould still not have passed the House, would doubtless, by an easy 
ation, have reached the entire change of an opinion which most 
of them already regarded as an incumbrance and would have voted 
for that bill. Watkins Leigh, of Virginia, in many respects occu- 
pied such a position. An educated man and distinguished lawyer, 
then representing Virginia in the Senate, he declared on its floor 
hat he had made the question of constitutional power his study 
d had arrived at a clear conviction that the constitution, which he 
on entering the Senate, sworn to support, conferred on the 
gress no authority to establish such an institution, but that he 
d yet bring himself to vote for one to avoid a greater evil. This 
evil he thought he saw in the arbitrary exercise of unconstitutional 
power of which he accused the President. The opportunity of giv- 
"ing such a vote, under circumstances rendering it certain that a bill 
9 the effect described would be carried by it, was never presented 
) Mr. Leigh; if it had been so presented in the course of that winter 
ve never doubted that he would have availed himself of it. 
us the new shape which the removal of the deposits enabled 
bank to give to the issue with which its supporters entered upon 
_ the panic session, especially as no one could doubt that their success 
| im compelling the restoration of the deposits would be the harbinger 
| Of its re-incorporation, was a clear and important advantage—one 
hich, if it had been wisely used, might have made the result of the 
tuggle more doubtful. 
Satisfied that it had done its full share towards producing that 
tion of the public mind which was thought necessary to the 
mplishment of their respective purposes, the bank waited only 
pening of the Congress for the performance of the part assigned 
er allies. Relying on their fidelity to the common cause its 
ed managers and all outside friends who had been initiated into 
ery of the evil times stood ready, at the appointed signal, to 
the National Capitol the wails of distress prepared for the 
nm which, when set to panic notes and re-echoed from its walls, 
it was confidently expected, cause every man of business and 
lly those who were dependent upon credit to quake with fear, 
as well as foes, it being well understood that no panic would 
ded as real which was not general. Before settling himself 


he 


tw, 


660 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


at Washington for the session Mr. Clay paid Mr. Biddle a visit at 
Philadelphia. With movements in contemplation, of which 1 
were the contrivers and chief engineers, of a character so impo 
so comprehensive and, may I not add, considering the intellig 
of the people to whom they would ultimately have to account for 
them, so reckless also, there were, of course, preliminary points to 
be settled which could not be safely submitted to a multitude of 
councellors. These, or the most material of them, we have a right, 
from subsequent developments, to infer, were settled in the interviews 
which took place between those gentlemen on that occasion, and one 
of them was, I do not at all doubt, that which I have before alluded 
to as having been uppermost in Mr. Clay’s mind from the begin- 
ning—the question of the political leadership of the bank forces m 
the campaign in which they had thus far progressed and of which 
they were about to enter upon that portion especially committed to 
the skill and daring of politicians. Mr. Clay, I am satisfied, did no 
leave Philadelphia before it was definitively settled between Mr. Bi 
and himself that, in all that was political in the future movements : 
the allies, the reins should be placed and kept in his hands and 
in respect to decisions in the last resort his control should be bot 
absolute and exclusive. The time had arrived when he could n 
longer afford and would not consent to trust to arrangements 
definite and comprehensive. Whatever may have been the condi 
of others he was a free agent. The bank could exercise no con 
over his actions and Mr. Biddle was made to understand that 
were the conditions on which alone the latter could receive his a 
and that without a compliance with them he would not pros 
another step in that direction. These are strong assumptions but 
reader will, in the sequel, say whether they are not as true as strc 
The eae between Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster if ever 
intimate had been so only during brief periods when they 
thrown together by accidental and imperative circumstances; re 
friendly and confidential, in the sense in which the latter rela 
obtains between men who sincerely like each other, they had nm 
been, there is good reason to believe in the course of their lives. 
the moment of which we are speaking there was not a vestigs 
that sentiment on either side. What Mr. Biddle’s personal p 
erences, as between them were, I have never had sufficient op} 
tunity to form a reliable opinion; from his general character and 
his temper I would infer that° he leaned to the side of Mr. Cla, 
but of that I know nothing, neither was it material for they 
all arrived at a crisis when such feelings lost their power over 
conduct of publid men. It was at Mr. Webster that the arrang 


° MS. VI, p. 85. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 661 


ment of which J have spoken was especially aimed. Competition for 
the distinctions in prospect was apprehended from no other quar- 
ter but from this it was apprehended. There were, besides, reasons 
in behalf of the exclusion of Mr. Webster from the leadership of 
a more general and not less cogent character. That post had been 
awarded to him at the previous session, particularly in the discus- 
sion on the veto Message which was expected to exert controlling 
influence on the then coming Presidential election, and, as I have 
said, he discharged the duties imposed upon him with singular 
ability. His position, on that occasion, for reasons elsewhere given, 
Was in every respect favorable to a full development of his powers. 
Mr. Clay, if the part had been assigned to him, could not have 
filled it so well. Mr. Webster's self-control, his superior reasoning 
powers and his peculiar subtilty in debate made him the most ft 
man for the hour. One unfamiliar with the character of our people 

and with the light in which Mr. Webster was regarded by them, 
could not at this time review his treatment of the case, made to 
his hand by the operations and appliances of the bank, without 
being amazed at his failure. But in selecting him as its spokesman 
‘the bank and its political confederates overlooked a disqualification 
his part which is very apt to render the ablest speaking unavail- 
g with the people. This was not surprising, for a political party 
which sanctions such steps as were taken to defeat President Jack- 
s on’s re-election seldom, if ever, attaches much importance to dis- 
| Qualifications like that here referred to, nor is it apt, in the hour 
of defeat, to look to the immorality of the means it has used or 
the impregnable virtue of the people for the causes of its dis- 
mfture but seeks them rather in defects, obvious or latent, in 
manner in which those means were applied. However diverse 
y then have been the shades of public opinion in respect to 
. Webster’s superiority to the influence of money in the dis- 
charge of public functions, his eagerness to borrow and the reckless- 
ness with which his loans were made were very generally known and 
being largely in, debt to the bank and, so far as that went, 
thin its power, was undoubted. This extensive knowledge of 
condition in that regard, and the industrious circulation given to 
act by the friends of the President and of his cause completely 
ested Mr. Webster’s very able speeches of credit with the classes 
whom they were designed to operate and reduced them to 
= same level in their estimation with what was said by the 
itself; a consideration which, altho’ it came to be understood 
it was too late for the past, Mr. Biddle would scarcely have 
himself at liberty to disregard a second time, whatever may 

been his personal feelings or other views upon the subject. 


662 _ AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


Le 


If the objection alluded to had not existed Mr. Clay would s 
have been the best man for the approaching crisis. The controve 
between the bank and the Government had now assumed a very 
ferent phase from that which it wore in 1832. Then the former had 
at least plausible reasons for calling its position one of defence. 
Those interested in it had a perfect right to ask for a renewal of it 
charter. Both branches of the Legislature sanctioned their reques' 
but the President neutralized their wishes by his veto, a mea 
always before resorted to with much hesitation and distrust—one ne 
calculated to attract the favor of the American people and only m ad | 
popular in the present instance by the great popularity of its authe 
and by the bad conduct of the bank. In such a contest, hacked 4 a 
he was, Mr. Webster would have been the very best of leaders i 
his personal independence had not been liable to question. But th 
struggle on which the bank had now determined was, whatever 
pretences with which it was undertaken, one of a purely age 
character. It was designed to make it one of life or death, and t 
employ the boldest means. It was indispensable that the leader 
the assault should possess both physical and moral courage, qua 
in which it was equally notorious that Mr. Webster was defici 
that Mr. Clay was at least amply for the occasion perhaps su 
abundantly endowed. I have spoken of the lack of cordiality i 
personal relations between these gentlemen from an early period 
looking over some of my old papers for the purposes of this w 
find the following memorandum of a declaration made to Mr. Fors} 
and myself and of one to me on the same point by Mr. Buchans 
When I laid my hand on the paper I had entirely forgotten its” 
istence, altho’ I remembered well the fact of the declaratieatelll 

At the commencement of the session of Congress when the election was me 
by the House of Representatives (1825) Mr. Clay told Mr. Forsyth and m 
at a dinner given by the Russian Minister, that if we could understand ° 


Mr. Webster meant to do we could do more than he, and used several 
sions indicating dislike and great want of confidence. ~- 


On the same paper the following: 


Dec. 30th 1826. Mr. Buchanan, of Penn. told me that, at the same s 
1825, when the bill making appropriations for the payment of the § 
claims was pending in the House of Representatives, Clay came to | 
said “I think we can pay these people with land,’ from which Mr. 
dissented. Clay then said, “ that yellow rascal is to have 
the money.” Mr. B. asked whether he meant Webster, to which Clay a 
Mr. B. then said that he thought W. was a clever fellow and he was glad 
to receive so much of the money as he thought he wanted it. C. said 
was probable that the treaty meant money but that he would give them 
Shortly after Webster addressed him and said that Clay meant to op 
bill because he (W.) had an interest in it, and wished him (B.) to fa 
notes he had made to support the bill as he thought it improper, from his si 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 663 


jon that he should take part in it. Soon after the commencement of the next 
on he, to his surprise, found Webster and Clay walking, arm in arm, behind 
peaker’s Chair and from that time forward a close intimacy has subsisted 
e "hi them.* 
M . Calhoun did not compete for the leadership nor do I believe 
tha he desired it. He was taken into the coalition, reeking (in the 
stimation of the supporters of the bank) with the bad odor of nulli- 
fication, but ready to make war on his own hook against the adminis- 
lon, a privilege gladly allowed him by his colleagues of the trium- 
His master-passion, at the moment, was hatred towards the 
eral and myself whilst his resentments would have been more de- 
edly directed against Mr. Webster. In respect to myself his own 
equent acts confessed that his suspicions of my hostility were in 
e beginning unfounded and afterwards exaggerated, and the Gen- 
il was, as I know, sincerely desirous to afford relief to the South 
to conciliate South Carolina which would have rescued Mr. Cal- 
un and his friends from the perils in which they had involved 
nselves. Mr. Webster, on the other hand, opposed with great 
inacity and not a little bitterness the efforts of Mr. Clay to effect 
ese results. 
_ Whilst Mr. Clay was thus busily and warily employed in fortify- 
ing the ground he intended to occupy in the approaching struggle— 
occasion which was destined to bring him and his able and life- 
contemporaries, Calhoun and Webster, side by side, in a 
isan field with the fires of ambition unquenched in their breasts 
each alike conscious that time and events had made the present 
r only chance for reaching the goal that had long attracted the 
ations and best energies of each—the sagacious and wily New 
lander was not idle. Philadelphia was in his course to the seat 
Government and his temporary sojourn there, at a critical 
ent, was therefore less liable to the notoriety and speculations 
tached to that of Mr. Clay. That he did not fail to inform him- 
'f before he left Philadelphia, of the conclusions in respect to the 
tion which had there been allotted to him for the coming winter, 
rtain. How this was done it would now be difficult and is in 
vay material to discover. It is not improbable that his friend 
iddle, with the off-hand frankness of his character, ° communi- 
it to him, with suitable delicacy, as one of the necessities of 
condition; but however this may have been, that he arrived at 
hington with full knowledge of the whole truth on the subject 
‘with the feelings which that information was calculated to 
3 in a breast like his the reader will be in the sequel, abun- 


his memorandum, in Van Buren’s hand, is in the Van Buren Papers under date of 
‘It is endorsed by Van Buren: ‘‘ Buchanan—Clay & Webster.” 


664 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. ae 


dantly satisfied. These feelings conjoined with speculations w: 
there is reason to believe, had constantly filled his mind since ¢ 
appearance of the President’s proclamation, prepared him for 
act of strong mark, the least effect of which would be to cripple 
not altogether mone lee Mr. Clay’ s promised leadership by secur- 
ing to himself a complete umpirage over the action of the standi ng 
committees of the Senate. 7 

I do not pretend to possess any very material proofs of the accuracy 
of the surmises I have thrown out in respect to the state of Mr, 
Clay’s mind upon the particular point referred to or to what wa 
decided in his interview with Mr. Biddle or to the information o! 
that decision obtained by Mr. Webster further than these ante 
cedents are justly and clearly to be assumed in view of well known 
facts and incidents following on their very heels. These shall be 
stated with all practicable exactness and if those who may hereafte 
peruse these sheets shall find themselves able to attach to them 
different interpretation from that I have here presented they 
of course be at liberty to do so: As to what their inferences 
be save a general concern for the prevalence of truth, I am a: 
different now as I shall certainly be then. To give an account here 
of the occurrences referred to, a precedence to which they are chron 
logically entitled, will of necessity separate my history of the pani 
session from the transactions of the bank which the proceedings o 
that session were designed to make effectual; a separation which 
tho’ it may weaken the force of the desert pian as a whole, may, i 
other respects, tend to agreably diversify the narrative. They cor 
stitute the incidents of a piece of private-history of the peric d 
speak of, in which I took a part altho’ I had at the time an in 
quate idea of its comprehensive interest and no suspicion that # 
bolt with which it was charged was aimed at myself as well as S 
Mr. Clay. I had suffered it to pass from my mind until the r 
lection of it was revived and my interest in it increased by a cast 
observation made by the latter gentleman during his visit to m 
house in the year 1849. I have elsewhere alluded to that visit 
to the conversations which took place between us about past 
and scenes. These unrestricted and familiar chats were resu 
whenever the press of company permitted, which was not as 
as we both desired for the reason that most of his political 
among my neighbours embraced the occasion of his first appe 
in our vicinage to give him a cordial shake by the hand. Mor 
one of these added to the expression of the pleasure they f 
meeting him an assurance of additional satisfaction afford 
finding him where he was and the latter idea was, in particula: 
neatly expressed by my worthy whig neighbour Mr. Chittenden 
he, attended by a large number of his friends, was taking leave Mm 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 665 


a few well spoken words addressed to Mr. Clay whilst the latter 
food in the porch of my house and by my side. The feuds of the 
t and the asperities caused by them were as completely ignored 
these conversations as if they had never existed. I having en- 
ly and forever withdrawn from public life and he being on the 
joint of doing the same thing we had no motive to refrain from 
aking freely as we thought and felt or to limit the measure of 
ur entertainment as we reviewed together the misinterpretations, 
unfounded conjectures and ’till now inexplicable failures of “ best 
id plans” which had been experienced on many exciting occasions 
oth by ourselves and by our respective parties. The inclinations 
of our dispositions had been towards the cultivation of friendly 
personal relations from a very early period in our public lives, with 
unfailing readiness to resume them after the successive and 
yiolent shocks to which they had been from time to time, exposed 
ad sufficiently subsided. This tendency on my side sprang, to no 
small extent, from admiration of the genial and winning social 
qualities and carriage for which in his prime of life he was greatly 
distinguished. These attracted my observation for the first time 
on his return from the Mission to Ghent, when I was a visitor at 
Washington and received a liberal share of his courtesies, and he 
retained them in a good degree to the end altho’ sobered by domestic 
‘sorrows and at times clouded by the adverse incidents of his public 
life, His own inclination in the same direction was, I have always 
believed, influenced by the recollection of occasions on which I had 
manifested a regard for his welfare which he had never been af- 
forded an opportunity to- reciprocate. 
| To two of these I will briefly refer. One of them presented itself 
jin the rough and tumble Presidential canvass of 1824, when I made 
my début in the art and business of President-making, at Washing- 
ton, as one of the leading supporters of Mr. Crawford. Becoming 
each day more convinced of the practicability of electing the latter 
land of preserving the republican party, then threatened with de- 
struction, if Mr. Clay would, for the time, decline his pretensions 
to the Presidency and consent to stand for the second place on the 
icket with Mr. Crawford and feeling sincerely friendly to both 
of these gentlemen, I made unwearied efforts to bring about that 
arrangement. The person thro’ whom I chiefly worked to that end 
Col. Thomas H. Benton, Mr. Clay’s relative, I think, by mar- 
lage,* at all events, then his ardent friend and a young Senator of 
much promise. I succeeded fully in satisfying the Colonel on two 
points, viz: that with such a ticket we would most likely succeed 


= 
+Van Buren states this relationship with his usual care. The common report that 
Senton and Clay were cousins was without foundation. Anne Gooch, an orphan, who 
vaS brought up by her uncle, Col. Thomas Hart, married Jesse Benton and named her 
‘dest Son after her uncle. Henry Clay married a daughter of Col. Hart. 


666 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. — 


and that Mr. Clay would, in that event, be Mr. Crawford’s suce 
and he consequently became as anxious for the adoption of the 
osition as I was myself and we had several conferences on the 
ject. He pressed the matter upon Mr. Clay with his usual ea: 
ness by whom the proposition was treated with all respect, bu t 
the progress of time and events the canvass assumed a shape whi 
led Mr. C. to think it his duty to decline it. He could not, unt 
the circumstances, have doubted that there was on my part a le 
tho’ subordinate share of disinterested friendship displayed on 
occasion towards himself and could never have failed to be sa 
fied that his eventual elevation to the Presidency would have be 
secured if my advice had been adopted, whether we had been su 
cessful in the immediate election or not. Mr. Crawford, it will } 
remembered, was soon broken down by disease and the party | 
which Gen. Jackson was elected would, in all probability, ha 
chosen Mr. Clay in his stead if the latter had continued before # 
‘Country in the attitude which, in the event of our failure in 18 
he would have occupied, that & one of the defeated republicaa 
didates in that contest. 
My second instance somewhat resembles the first. Mr. Cla 
name was sent to the Senate by President Adams for the off 
Secretary of State at a moment when the charge of a selfish coa 
between himself and Mr. Adams, by which the latter had been mi 
President in consideration of a promise that Mr. Clay should rece 
that office at his hands, was rife at Washington and when the 
sions of men were running mountain- high. ‘ 
That there would ultimately be a union between the Crawf 
Jackson and Calhoun parties to resist the latitudinarian views ° 
we knew Mr. Adams to cherish and to overthrow the new admii 
tration was nearly as certain at the moment when that admin 
tion was ushered into existence as it became at any subsequent p 
Mr. Clay, having brought the administration into life was 
upon as its main reliance and a blow aimed at him was therefo re Q ¢ 
rectly regarded as one in advance and, as those who wished ton 
it thought, a well deserved one at the administration. It wa 
in the power of the Senators belonging to the three politi 
sions named to defeat Mr. Clay’s nomination, but by voting 
rejection—a step never resorted to on such occasions except fo 
causes—they could give credence in important localities to the 
of a corrupt coalition between the President and his Secretary of 
State. ° The strong men of the political interests I have named were 
eager to vote for the rejection of Mr. Clay’s nomination d 1 re 
respectively headed by imposing names: the Jackson men by 


° MS. VI, p. 95. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 667 


ral himself, then Senator, the friends of Crawford by that vener- 
1 sterling old patriot Nathaniel Macon ‘and those of Calhoun 
fin the Chair) by Robert Y. Hayne and voted accordingly. 
used to join them from the beginning, first because I did not 
ou impeaching the motives of my friends which I knew to be 
) feel myself justified by the proofs before us in affixing such 
% yma upon the character of the nominee, and secondly, because 
3 case had been stronger against him than I thought it was I 


ld still have regarded the course proposed as politically inex- 


r. Clay, shortly before his death, held a conversation with my 
I nd Francis P. Blair of which I was a principal subject. The 
; a commenced his political career an ardent sup- 
a Mr. Clay and illustrated the depth of his friendship by 
kable acts of devotion performed in the disinterested spirit 
wh i h he has been thro’ life capable. After the Presidential 
tion of 1824, at which he zealously sustained Mr. Clay’s cause, 
Blair became an admirer and political adherent of Jackson and 
med closest relations of personal friendship with the latter which 
tinned undiminished at the death of the General, who left a 
record of his sense of its sincerity by bequeathing all his pri- 
papers to Mr. B’s keeping. Changed feelings naturally arose out 
. Blair’s new position, producing a feud between Mr. Clay and 
elf of unsurpassed bitterness and of many years continuance. It 
iniled itself to their familes and excited so strongly the indigna- 
1 of Mrs. Blair, a lady possessed of rare abilities and a resolute 
ri }, altho’ as amiable as she was resolute, that she refused to take 
ay’s hand when offered to her in the Senate chamber after a 
Bre econciliation had taken place between him and her husband. 
this excess of feeling on her side was sorely repented of and 
trace of resentment banished from her mind before Mr. Clay’s 
th. In common with his numerous female friends she employed 
self almost incessantly, during the latter moments of his life, 
securing for him, absent as he was from his family, those as- 
sements and comforts which it is the peculiar and blessed office 
er sex to provide and Mr. Clay at one time agreed to go to her 
se and to put himself under her “Kentucky nursing.” In the 
rsation with Mr. Blair, to which I have referred, he expressed 
p regret that angry passages had now and then deformed the 
i se of our political antagonism and spoke with much kindly 
ng of my general demeanour towards him, notwithstanding 
ical differences, and of features of my character which he 
e the subject of special] commendation. This was communicated 
e 6 by Mr, Blair as it was obviously intended by Mr. Clay that 


* ik a 


668 “AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, ai 


it should be, and the feelings expressed to Mr. B. were pro: 

earnestly and sincerely reciprocated on my part. At the same tin 
Col. Benton, being engaged in preparing his “Thirty years in t 
Senate,” sent me at intervals, the original drafts of several cha 
ters of that work for such comment as I might feel disposed - 
make. One of these contained his able and forcible exculpation « 
Mr. Clay from the charge of corrupt coalition with Mr. Adams i 
the election of 1824, an affair that had given Mr, Clay much tro bl 
iL expressed to the Galone my opinion of his liberal and manly cor 
duct in this matter in a letter which he afterwards informed 
he had read, during his canvass for the House of Representatiy 
in that portion of his District distinguished for devotion to 
Clay and by that means obtained the votes of the friends of 
latter to an extent sufficient to secure his election. He had s 
the same chapter to Mr. Blair who, in answer to some unfavou 
criticism by Mr. Clay on the probable violence of the Col 
forthcoming book, detailed to him the substance of the por 
alluded to, which made a strong and favorable impression o: 
Clay and led him to say that he should not be unmindful of 
the future. This having been communicated to Col. Benton ¢ 
latter addressed to me a letter extending the account he had 
me of his work to another matter to which Mr. Clay also att 
much importance and the narrative of which I greatly desired 
see before he died; to which end I enclosed it to Mr. Blair w 
request that he would impart as much of its contents as, in hi 
cretion, he should deem best but in a way to make it certain that ] 
Clay would not feel obliged to trouble himself with a notice of thei 
This was done by the letter which, with my note and Col. Bent 

—closely connected as they were ome the dying scenes of a man n 
distinguished and doing much credit to those gentlemen th 
of sufficient interest to insert here,” ‘ 


LETTER FROM CoL. BENTON—EXTRACT, 


Mr. Clay is dying and knows it and looks forward to some weeks or a 
months to terminate his earthly career. There is no help for him and he kx 


beam of sunshine went over his face with many expressions of gratif 

This has made me think of suggesting to you to write him a letter—p 
think under the circumstances—to express your own feelings, and in 
you might add, what that chapter shows, that there is a time when p 
animosities are to be obliterated under the great duties of historic 


— 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 669 


r nd always preferring to say what is honorable when the veracity 

y will permit. 

other part, when I shall have to speak of him personally—the duel 
Rai dolph—he will appear with great honor, not merely for courage 

the field, but, what is more, generosity of feeling. You might add this, 

please, as a thing you have learnt from me and in which I and Jessup 

1) will speak alike.* 


To F. P. Bia, Esq.” 


LINDENWALD Jan. 16th 1852. 
AR SiR 
eived the enclosed letter from Col. Benton last evening, and hasten 
it to you to be shewn in confidence to Mr. Clay, if you concur with me 
propriety of such a step. Its contents shew very clearly that such a 
tion of it was not contemplated by the writer yet I can see no serious 
tion that could be raised to the course I propose. * * * This letter, 
‘in connection with the general turn of the Colonel’s feelings towards 
"Cs y, always, to our observation, excluding the idea of a fixed per- 
atred, satisfies me beyond a doubt that his sympathies are as deeply 
as our own. This must be your opinion also and so believing we 
not to hesitate, I think, in employing the means which have been 
tally placed in our power to ameliorate the effects of past estrange- 
c if we cannot remove them altogether, to which I would be most happy 
ntribute all in my power. 

Do me the favor to repeat to Mr. Clay, if you have an opportunity, assur- 
es of my respect, esteem and confidence and add that no one can have 
more satisfaction from his noble bearing whilst confined to the sick 
mi have done. * * * 
: ; Z Yours truly 

MS Vee 


To Hon. Henry Ctay.? 
Srtver Sprine Jan. 22d. 1852 


most gratifying to me that Mr. Van Buren commits to my discretion the 
nity of disclosing the kind feelings and high opinion entertained for 
two of the most distinguished adversaries you have encountered in the 
| contests of your time. I therefore take the same liberty with Mr. Van 
letter that he proposes with Col. ° Benton’s to him, persuaded that 
would more please you than the naked and unpremeditated expression 
= contained in the very words of the private notes not meant to reach 
as 
, Van Buren would not have turned over to me, I well know, an office which 
uld gladly have performed himself if he had not felt the delicacy of trou- 
u with a letter, in your present painful condition which might seem to 
ly and burden you with a matter that might cost an effort or embarrass 
communication you can receive as you have my oral ones—take to 
m with your benevolent thoughts without further exertion. 
ith the warm feelings of earlier days 
I am very truly yours, : 
F. P. Bram. 
11, 1852, Van Buren Papers. 2 Van Buren Papers. °MS. VI, p. 100. 


a é re 
670 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


To return to the occasion of his conversation with me, at 
wald, Mr. Clay spoke with perfect freedom of the course he in 
to pursue, during the short period that he might remain in publ 
life. It had always, he said been his wish to judge of public mes 
ures on their intrinsic merits and to treat them according to the 
opinion he could form of their probable effects upon the public we 
fare. He hoped that in making up that opinion he had kept hi ms 
above the control of mere partisan feelings, and knowing how e: 
nestly he had desired to do so, notwithstanding the difficulties 
the way in high party times which he appreciated and acknowledg 
he could not but think that he had to some extent succeeded in cz 
rying that wish into effect. In relation to the past others would d 
termine but of the future he felt that he could speak in this regs 
with certainty and he thought he could not deceive himself in t 
estimate he had formed of the service it would yet in his power 
render to his Country be eschewing partisan prejudices and by 2 
plying his experience and the faculties with which Providence 
favored him to the impartial consideration and support of measu 
the utility of which he could not doubt, and he protested that, { 
willing, this duty should be faithfully performed. I need not 
that I earnestly commended this determination and encouragec d 
observance. j 

Mr. Webster’s name was introduced: I do not recollect by wh 
or in what connection. Mr. Clay spoke of him in the cautious 
measured terms which I had often before observed in his conyel 
tion when it related to a political associate of whose course he 
not approve and which was indeed natural when addressed to 
opponent of both. He referred without qualification to his gi 
abilities but did not affect to admire his general character a 
mitted that their relations had not commonly been as cordial o 
intercourse as confidential as was usual between associate | 
members of the same political party; nevertheless he declared 


2 


he had been always willing to do Mr. Webster justice and to conc 
to him the position and all the weight to which he believed him 
entitled in their party and had made a point of speaking with ; 
of him when he could do so with truth. There had been one ¢ 
sion, he added, when he was fully satisfied that Mr. Webster 
committed treason in his heart against their common party. 
had then spoken of him and of his designs as he thought 
fidelity deserved. I do not think there was a man amoi 
Countrymen who looked upon a breach of party allegiance will 
more severity than Mr. Clay. Although he had filled a high position 
in the old republican party and was now the conceded leade 
rival organization the idea had never entered his mind that |} 
himself been guilty of any such offence. He, Mr. Calhoun and | 


. ae 


fs : "-xvrostoonapiry OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 671 


» had been prominent members of the republican party at 
of the War of 1812, as has been elsewhere said, looked to 
ution of all pre-existing parties as certain and as if from 
impulse directed their attention to the Chief Magistracy 
[ation as the representatives of a new generation. Justly 
the record of their course as related to the war and con- 
‘the political strength which it would give them they eagerly 
a general adoption of their new idea in a spirit doubtless in 
ree of magnanimity but of forgetfulness of the inveterate 
ng character of party divisions. The acquisition by each 
of fragments of the old federal party, as the spoils of 
ving as a stimulus to their zeal in that direction, they were 
in arriving at the conclusion not merely that the old parties 
h become but that they had already become extinct and took 
r re spective positions accordingly. Mr. Clay having determined 
i hin political fortunes upon the success of the protective policy 
IT improvements by the General Government and of a 
al Bank, as the nursing mother of both, soon found himself at 
head of a new political organization composed of men who coin- 
sd with his views on those subjects; but the political antecedents 
fost of them had been very unlike his own. From the moment 
of that organization became distinctly defined and its 

cemented by the “outside pressure” of its opponents he ad- 
d to it with unswerving fidelity. Neither the successive slights 
his individual pretensions, in favor of Harrison and Tay- 
the many other desertions of which he felt that he had a 
complain, altho’ they tried his temper severely and altho’ he 
t but have believed that his old associates would have 
his return to their ranks with kindness and with renewed 
ce, shook for a moment his loyalty to his party, in the unin- 
d and faithful service of which he spent his remaining days. 
ture and the earnest. tone of Mr. Clay’s concluding remarks 
it Mr. Webster brought suddenly and strongly to my recollec- 
an ere in relation to the choice of the standing committees 
enate, at the opening of the panic session with which the 
the latter was connected and which I was instrumental 1a 
and I was induced to think that it was to that trans- 
Mr. Clay alluded. I mentioned this impression and 
relate the circumstances, which he desired me to do. I 
ibed what occurred between President Jackson, Senator 
c myself on the morning after my arrival at Washington, 
y ‘seat in the Senate for the first time as Vice President, 
ta 7 as it is set forth in the statement below; saying to 
it the same time, that I was confident I had never had any 


672 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


further communication with Mr. Grundy upon the subject, ne 
did I recollect having any with the President, and that my 
edge of the participation of Mr. Webster in his proposed intri 
was limited to what had passed in the interview of which I 
given him an account, but that I understood Mr. Grundy 
enough to feel certain that he would never have carried the mai 
as far as he did with Gen. Jackson without being ee 
sured of the ground on which he stood. 

Mr. Clay Foon to my narrative with the deepest interest a 
altho’ he abstained from asking explanations I saw by the increasin 
animation of his countenance ina the continual nodding of his heac 
that he accompanied my description of the scene with a ready inter 
pretation of its import and tendency. I cannot pretend to reca 
his words at the conclusion but he admitted that the affair which: 
had detailed to him constituted a material part of the transactic 
out of which had grown the conviction of Webster’s infidelity toh 
party to which he had alluded, and that at that moment for the fi 
[time] he had learned how it was that the execution of designs J ] 
believed Mr. Webster to entertain had been arrested. The idea thi 
the latter meditated an entire change in his party relations or : aN} 
thing more than the acquisition of an additional share of person: 
influence over the action of the Senate for himself at the expence ¢ 
Mr. Clay, for which he stood ready as was his way to return | 
equivalent, did, not, at the time, enter my head, nor did the co; 
munication which I believed Bad been made to Mr. Grundy ca 
me to suspect that Mr. Webster’s own views or those of his fr 
extended to his becoming a member of President Jackson’s Cabi 
and to his succeeding in that capacity to the place in the General 
confidence and esteem which was, at the moment, generally ¢ 
ceded to myself. But Mr. Clay’s communication and the necessi 
of noticing the subject in this memoir gave it an added interest a 
induced me to institute a careful review of the whole matter, 
results of which will now be given to my readers, who may d 
mine for themselves how much reason there is fae believaaeay 
such day dreams were indulged in by both. 


°MS. VI, p. 105, 


CHAPTER XLV. 


* About to commence my presidency over the Senate I was neither 
‘ignorant nor unmindful of the feelings with which I was regarded 
“by a majority of its members—feelings recognised as belonging to 
muman nature, altho’ so little to its credit by sagacious oer ers 
i 
in every age one sententiously described by classical authority— 
“ proprium-humani ingenii est odisse quem laeserit.” I was never- 
theless and perhaps on that account especially careful to respect, in 
my own course towards them, all the proprieties of my position. 
The Vice President being chosen by the People and made the pre- 
siding officer of the pene without any agency on its part, differing 
in that regard from the Speaker of the House, the Senate had always, 
until 1823, retained the choice of its committees in its own hand, 
| but Eadine that this duty could not be as easily and as satisfactor ale 
performed by a general vote of the body as by the appointment of 
the presiding officer the rules in that respect were altered, in that 
year, by giving the power of appointing them to their President. 
| , The Vice President was thus enabled to put it in the power of the 
‘Senate to exercise the same privilege enjoyed by the House of Repre- 
| sentatives—that of having its committees selected by an officer of its 
own choosing—by abstaining from taking his seat at the commence- 
| ment of each session long enough to eed the President pro tempore, 
an officer elected by the Senate and always in being, an opportunity 
‘to do that duty, and the amendment of the rule led to a very fitting 
usage on the part of the Vice President so to absent himself and 
with this view. The existence of this usage and my own sense of 
its propriety furnished the rule for my own action and it was adopted 
of course. Altho’ I thus withheld myself from all interference 
with the selection of the committees—a function which a majority 
of the then Senate were determined to resume,—as they had a perfect 
right to do—it so happened that my course sjaocactel the embarrass- 
ient and excited the ire of the opposition leaders. To have taken 
from me the appointment of the committees on my first appearance 
lin the body which had long before, of its own accord, attached that 
/power to the office to which I had been elected, would have been a 
\proceeding in keeping with their past course coward me and one 
|which, if I had presented myself at the opening of the session, they 
vould have adopted with alacrity. The charge which they would, 


127483 °—voL 2—20-——43 673 


G44 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


stances, would not have lacked plausibility, would have been that 
deviation so marked, from the general course of my predece 
was designed to deprive the venerable President pro tempore, J 
White, a life long friend of the President (as they would have 
scribed him) of his privilege because I suspected his fidelity to th 
administration of his old friend, and the opportunity to make thi 
imputation would have added materially to the satisfaction afforde 
by the revocation, face to face, of my authority. 

But the loss of that gratification was not the most unpleas: 
feature of the predicament in which those leaders were placed k 
my absence. Judge White, long the friend and companion of G on 
Jackson and the man in whose behalf I had shown so strong a 
not only that he should be appointed Secretary of War (on the 
solution of the first Cabinet) but that he should be invited to 1 
with the General at the White House, they having both rec 
become widowers, had already at the period of which we are spe 
inclined a favoring ear to the blandishments which, in the s 
separated him forever from his old friend and spread a gloom 
the closing scenes of his own life. Mr. Clay was, I doubt not, 
ciently satisfied of the state of the Judge’s feelings to have con 
to leave to him the appointment of the committees had he not 
known that if the latter performed that duty in a manner acceptal 
to the friends of the bank he would have disqualified himsel 
the further uses to which it was even then determined to put ii 
Neither would the Judge, pleased with the idea of being mé 
candidate for the Presidency, as he thought to be elected b 
those who brought him forward intended merely to draw the 
of Tennessee and some other States from the Democratic non 
have been willing to assume thus early a responsibility which 
pot have failed to render him harmless. Altho’ it had become: 
ciently probable to cause its being regarded in particular 
ments as certain that a complete separation between the P 
and Judge White would soon occur, it was equally certain 
consent of the latter at that early period to appoint com 
favorable to Mr. Clay’s views and to the schemes of the bank 
have destroyed his popularity in the States in which it was 
that his nomination could be used with effect. Look whi 
they would there were serious difficulties in the way of the 
erates. If Judge White resigned the place of President pro é 
by shunning a duty he had accepted before his feelings 
Gen. Jackson had undergone a change he could not have | 
a share of the odium that would have followed the appointn 
the committees in a way to promote the bank’s designs and 
not yet prepared to admit that his feelings towards the Gener: 


1 Hugh Lawson White, of Tennessee. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 675 


if Mr. Clay and his friends were driven to the necessity 
ing the rule authorizing the presiding officer to appoint 
mittees the Judge would be obliged to vote upon that propo- 
and thus, if he voted for it, he must have shared largely in 
responsibility. This was perplexing, nay irritating and Mr. 
owed it in word and manner, but there was no other prac- 
recourse, by which the selection of the committees could be 
to the opposition, than the passage of a resolution restoring 
ice of them to the Senate, as well against the action of the 
nt pro tempore as against the Vice President. The idea of 
ng the former, by this act of apparent distrust of his impar- 
ity, did not seem to have presented itself to the mind of any 
, affording the clearest evidence that there was no discordance 
‘respective feelings and views on the passage of the resolution. 
ige White asked to be excused from voting on the resolution on 
of the dilemma or embarrassment in which he appeared to 
imself placed. His colleague, Mr. Grundy, who understood 
le matter thoroughly and who thought it but right that the 
ould be compelled to show his hand, vigorously opposed the 
The Senate adjourned without deciding the question, at 
tance of Mr. Frelinghuysen, who had doubts on the subject, 
. Clay was constrained to raise the curtain in part, on the 
g day, by coming to the Judge’s relief, saying many civil 
f him and advocating strenuously his request to be excused. 
excused but by the close vote of 22 to 19. 

‘groundless attacks that were made upon me by Mr. Clay, aided 
. Calhoun, in the course of this discussion on the [cause] of 
m-appearance amongst them and their Senatorial associates 

djutors, under peculiar, indeed unexampled circumstances,— 
ion presenting a fair opportunity for them to show the ab- 

personal il] will in what they had before done—were not 
bad taste but afforded unpleasant evidence of the extent to 

ch a feeling had controlled their past actions. As a notice 

nued hostility it was, I regret to say, superfluous and if de- 

9 disturb my nerves, by giving me a foretaste of what I had 

, they might have done me the justice to doubt, at least, 

much could be accomplished in that regard by the demon- 

But the surprising feature of the occasion was that Mr. 

for the first and I might with truth add for the only time 

‘stood by with folded arms and took neither part nor lot 

© movement against me—a semblable exhibition of neu- 

ich failed not to attract Mr. Clay’s attention. 

lution to change the mode of choosing the committees was 

y a strict party vote, and° the 12th of December was desig- 


SLURS ya Bae be 


676 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIA 


nated for their election by the Senate. I had i 
Jackson that I would not reach Washington before 
Saturday the 14th of that month. When the order w 
Grundy moved to postpone the election of co 
ceeding Monday, the 16th, assigning, for reason, the abse 
eral members and the importance of | having a full Senate £ for 
formance of so important a duty. Mr. Clay took instant ¢ 
ground against the proposition: he hoped 


5 


the postponement would not take place; the Senate was as full a: 
on the average, during the session. We were now at the close 
week of the session and we were urged to put off the appointme 
tees, 2 matter about which he supposed the minds of all gentle 
up. This day had been assigned for the appointment some daj 
Was as well Known then that there were absentees as it was ni 
objection was urged then. There were important bills now lying « 
that ought to be referred to the committees. The time for the | 
committees was approaching and it was of importance that | 
appointed now. If gentlemen were absent he regretted it; but) 
fault and he thought if we were to look at the political character | 
sentees that things would be as they now are if they were here. 
could see no reason for the delay but that we ought rather to 
appointment, and he would therefore call the yeas and nays. 


Mr. Webster said 


he had voted for the change of the rule, in regard to the appointmen 
mittees with a good deal of reluctance. It appeared to him likely | 
be some dificulty in making so good a selection in respect te w 
were to prevail. It appeared te him an early period to proc 
sideration of important business. He thought there was reason 
to the absent gentlemen to be here and it is said they will be h 
changed the rule—they could not know it, and if gentlemen re 
ponement he thought it was reasonable and that the motion she 

Mr. Cuay. I understand the gentleman io say it is time oa D 
appointment of Committees. 

Mr. Wessterr. I said it was an early period to take up impe 

Mr. Cray. At no time, I believe, has the appointment of C 
delayed beyond the second week of the session. 


Mr. Grundy said, that 


the present was a new case in the Government. Ii was new i 
Senate, at the commencement of the session, had changed an i 
Formerly the presiding officer appointed the standing commil 
well known that he exercised that power. The gentlemen 
had no night to expect that they would be called on at this earh 
session to perform the duty of choosing the committees. 


xD 


The question of postponement was determined in th e aff 
as follows: - 


Yeas. Messrs. Benton, Bibb, Brown, Frelinghuysen, Forsyth 
dricks, Hill, Kane, King, Knight, Moore, Morris, Prentiss, 5 


em oe 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 677 


Shepley, Silsbee. Smith, Swift, Tallmadge, Tipton, Tomlinson, Webster, 
as and Wright—2s. 

rs. Bell, Calhoun, Chambers, Clay, Ewing, Kent. Mangum. eer 
ter, Preston, Sonthard, Sprague and Tyler—13. 


e then, on motion of Mr. Mangum, adjourned over to 


eader will not fail to be struck with the arms-length style of 
s in the debate between the two champions of the bank, so 

hat was to be expected from them on the eve of a re-open- 
aign and legislative struggle in which they were looked to 
and still more by the peculiar appearance of the di- 

on Mr. Grundy’s motion : the particular friends of Messrs. Clay 
thoun voting with the former against the motion and every 

ad Senator siding with Mr. Webster save Mr. Sprague 
father had been a prominent member of the democratic party 
miend of Mr. Clay, and the son, on that and, I believe, on all 
it occasions obeyed sympathies similar to those which had 
woverned his father. 

[ was .s not present at the dialogue which took place thus at the very 
of the session between the principal personages on the bank 
2 Senate, but can well conceive, from what I have often seen 
occasions, Mr. Clay’s look and manner on this. So formid- 
‘Movement towards overturning his premiership may have 
t ulterior object or deliberate design, but few will so 


d at Washington on the evening of Saturday the 14th of 
mber, according to the appointment I had made with the Presi- 
E and found a message from him at my quarters expressing a de- 
@ see me as soon after breakfast on the following morning as 
my convenience. I found him, at an early hour, expecting 
; and attended only by Senator Grundy, and was at onee, ac- 
to his custom, informed of the object of the desired interview. 
i ‘ca Mr. Clay had pressed the appointment of the standing 
es of the Senate at an earlier day but that Mr. Grundy, with 
bh that gentleman would explain to me, had succeeded in 
ng Ean Chick put off till the morrow, for which time their se- 
d been made the order of the day. 
andy then spoke of the probable character of the session, 
e nature of the subjects that would require action and 
portance to the administration of having the committees 
y constituted as possible, in all of which I fully con- 
He had, he said, what he considered sufficient reason to 
at an arrangement could be made with Mr. Webster and 
Ss by which the latter object could be materially promoted. 
essed that opinion to the President by whom he had 


{! 


SF ey oigmessaebeo seg oF 


a a 


678 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. — 


been consulted; hence the sree en <y of the chee ofc commi 
and the application for the present interview. Determined on 
instant that I would, under no circumstances, be a party to 
such arrangement with Mr. Webster, I did not stop to ask 
Grundy for the grounds of his belief in the practicability of t 
scheme proposed or even to give him an opportunity to assign thet 
but proceeded to state, at some length, the principles and cons 
tions upon which I felt constrained to oppose it. Satisfied, 
declared myself to be, that Mr. Grundy would be as little favora 
as I could be to a political coalition with Mr. Webster I would 1 
say a word on that point but would limit myself to an attempt 
convince him that no arrangement like that suggested, howey iV 
plausibly devised or cautiously guarded, could be carried o 
the then excited state of public feeling without exposing the. 
and his administration to the suspicion of being disposed to 
such a coalition, and to impress him with a sense of the advanté 
which Mr. Clay would derive from being furnished with materi 
to spring such a mine upon us. I dwelt on the antagonistic pos 
which the President and Mr. Webster had always occupied, in 
of peace and in time of war, and especially in relation to the 
which we all knew would be the principal subject of the ses 
the former the disinterested and fearless opponent of that poy 
institution, willing to brave its immense strength from m 
exclusively of a public and patriotic character whilst the latter 
regarded by all sides as one of its most unscrupulous supp orte 
on the confusion and consequent alarm with which such a con) 
tion as was indicated would fill the minds of the friends who | 
thus far sustained the General with so much firmness as the 
forerunner of an ultimate surrender of the cause in which t 
made great sacrifices and in which they were ready to make ¢ 
still. I admitted, in their broadest latitude, the troubles th 
ahead, the certain severity of the struggle, but declared that I. 
one, was prepared for it and would enter upon it in the ful 
viction that the people, if nothing occurred to blunt their 
or to raise a doubt of the purity and disinterestedness of ss : 
eral’s aims, in which they now implicitly confided, would car 
as on many previous occasions they had ers us, triump 
thro’ the crisis. 3 
_I only attempt to recall the outline of my ieee 
dent, after introducing the subject, as I have said, conci 
with simple directness and unreserve, took no further part 


° MS. VI, p. 115. 


_ AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 679 


them. We remained standing throughout the interview—the 
resting one hand upon the mantel. When I had concluded 
ed towards Mr. Grundy, who made no response to what I 
ed,and advised him to drop the matter, to which the latter 
| and immediately withdrew. Between neither of these 
men and myself was the subject ever revived. 

) remarkable circumstances signalized the opening of the ses- 
Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster, the principal leaders of the party 
dosition to the Administration, who had parted in the Senate 
ber, when the previous session broke up, with apparently un- 
cordiality and mutual confidence, now met on the same floor 
on the eve of a great political oe gle with every indication 
nly of alienation but of the indulgence on the side of each of 
Ss reciprocally hostile and defiant, and by the aid of one of 
leaders, backed by eight of its sympathizing colleagues, 
tt the strenuous efforts of the other, and to his great annoy- 
partisan motion made by one of the friends of the President 
carried, to the surprise of the uninitiated, by a vote of that 
in which the Administration—which proverbially repelled 
ity—was supposed to be in a hopeless minority. These 
Tences, so extraordinary at a time when party feeling was un- 
y bitter and when the lines of party demarkation were very 
y defined, J shall endeavor to explain. 

course pursued by Mr. Webster, at the previous session, upon 
ssage of Mr. Clay’s bill for the pacification of South Carolina, 
escribed in my closing observations on nullification, but there 
eatures in the proceedings there related bearing upon the sub- 
before us which were not brought sufficiently to view for our 
design. In the absence of direct evidence of the cause of so 
and so great a change in the relations and purposes of those 
emen, which is now not to be expected, we can only look for 
ution to contemporaneous occurrences in the course and con- 
the parties which shed light upon the subject and of the 
of which we have reliable proof. To do justice to these 
tend this digression to a greater length than was intended, but 
not doubt that temperate and well considered accounts of the 
f men who are destined to figure largely in our history, on 
ms conceded to have been both intricate and important, pro- 
g from contemporaries who had good opportunities to possess 
ves of the truth and who can not, at the time when their 
made, be under any adequate motive to misrepresent it, will 
great interest to the men of the present time and instructive 
ae come after them. Of Mr. Webster’s predetermination 
e Mr. Clay’s bill and to do this without a very particular 
nation of or scrupulous regard to the extent of the concessions 


680 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


. 
; } 
or ameliorations proposed by it, and that he never relaxed that 
determination until he had in the debate placed himself before © 
Country, in respect to the general subject, as nearly as he deem 
safe and practicable, in the position he desired to occupy, there can- 
not be a reasonable doubt. Yet the only way in which this end 
could, as he at first thought be attained was to him, until near the 
close of the debate, a source of nervous personal apprehension 
Nevertheless if the obstacles in the path to which his ambition 
pointed were formidable in his eyes it was equally obvious to all that 
the temptations to follow it were not less potent. The President's 
Proclamation had struck him as full of promise of future advance: 
ment if the facilities it seemed to afford were promptly and wisely 
embraced. We have authority, necessarily derived from himse 
for saying that the first knowledge he received of its existence 
was derived from a traveler just arrived from the seat of Govern 
ment, unknown to him and by whom he was unknown, who told hin 
as a piece of news that Gen. Jackson had issued a proclamatior 
against the alee “taken altogether from Webster’s speech at 
Worcester ”—“ where he” (Webster) “had a short time be 
reproached the Administration for its backwardness and in so d 
had recapitulated the powers and duties of the General Governmen 
as previously defined in his reply to Hayne.” It was hardly to b 
expected that he should fail to find in the Proclamation much 6: 
what his unknown informant has described as constituting its prim 
cipal matter or to be gratified by it. The Boston Gazette, a journa 
professing good will towards the Administration of Gen. J acl 01 
also spoke of it as follows: 
The Proclamation of the President is a very fortunate document for M 
Webster; and, if that distinguished gentleman plays his cards skilfully, | , 
can, as easy as kiss my hand, be at the head of the administration party wits 
twelve months. 
It was not strange that he should construe the signs of the tim 
as promising him a liberal participation in the action of an admin 
tration which he had labored so hard to overthrow and witho 
violence to the principles which he had always professed. He los 
no time but forthwith rallied his party at Faneuil Hall and fre 
its time honored walls came forth the warmest commendations o 
favored State Paper, of its principles and of the patriotic course 
its distinguished author, with earnest pledges of support in i 
eerereenere: commendation and assurances promulgated under ¢é 2 
cumstances ad in a form which vouchsafed to Mr. Webseiam 
credit of their paternity. Having thus defined his position inr 
spect to a matter of such vast importance Mr. Webster remained at 
home until the issue between the Federal Government and Sc th 
Carolina had been fully formed by the nullifying Ordinance of t a 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 681 


the passage of a law to carry it into effect and the promulga- 
£ Gov. Hayne’s counter Proclamation. Congress met on the 


of that month. He supported the Force bill (to which his 
pher, Mr. March, says he was strongly urged by Mr. Grundy, 
hom that gentleman describes as the President’s “next friend”) 
{ speech of undoubted ability, and this he would have done if his 
eech at Boston had never been made because the principle on 
1 it proceeded was that by which he claimed that his whole 
life had been regulated. Mr. Clay, was also unreservedly 1 in 
r of its passage altho’ he was, for reasons that were satisfactory 
> himself yet liable to misconstruction, absent at the vote, and did 
ot embrace the measure with any extraordinary zeal. 

The discussion drew from Mr. Calhoun an intimation, tho’ not 
or strenuously pressed, that Mr. Webster was trying to 
ate the administration, and a personal attack of extreme vio- 
Was made upon him by Senator Poindexter, upbraiding him 

vith his conduct during the war of 1812, thus inflicting a wound upon 
his feelings the healing of which, as we shall see, was reserved for 
‘closing scene in the political drama to which the attention of 
Country was now directed with the keenest solicitude. Mr. 
ays Measure of pacification not yet formally announced but all 
confidently expected at what he might think the most auspi- 
us moment for its introduction, was looked to as the touchstone 
it was to determine the effect of the position—to some extent, at 
st, a new one—which Mr. Webster had assumed upon his future 
ations with Mr. Clay and with the mass of their political associates. 
| the main point, that of opposition to it, Mr. Webster’s mind had 
een, as before intimated, doubtless, made up from the beginning; 
£ the manner in which his opposition should be avowed, the extent 
which his objections to the anticipated bill should be carried to 
e them sufficient for his purposes, and the way in which the one 
2 different course might be received were questions alike deli- 
» and grave. It having been pretty well ascertained that Mr. 
y's bill, whether satisfactory to the disaffected State or not, would, 
assed, suffice to induce her to abandon her refractory steps, 
= manifestly the general sense of the Country that the 
on ot some such measure,° if not indispensable, was in the high- 
ree desirable to avoid the evils of internecine commotion, Mr. 
Ss Pcaacity admonished him to weigh well the grounds upon 
it would be safe to place himself in opposition to what might 
tly claimed to be the will of the people. He had too much sense 
understand that the occasion was one on which the public mind 


1 George Poindexter, of Mississippi. ° MS. VI, p. 120. 


re aa 


682 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


would neither make allowance for the mere personal feelings « 
man nor tolerate commonplaces among the motives and excus 
granting or. denying legislation, such as greater or less profits 
manufacturers under one or another set of revenue regulations or n 
or less encouragement to any particular interest. These were m 
ters which it might well be urged would be listened to with respect at 
canvassed with care under different circumstances but which woul 
not be allowed [to] control in a crisis like that which had been broug! 
on the Country partly thro’ the selfishness of one and not less thr 
the headlong violence of another class. It was plain, and the trul 
did not pass his intelligent mind unheeded, that he could not hope 
escape public denunciation if he should attempt to defeat the m 
the introduction of which by Mr. Clay was expected, in the actual 
dition of parties and of the Country, on any other ground than 1 
it amounted to an abandonment of the protective system and wo 
volve the certain prostration of immense interests which had grown 
under the promised encouragement of the Government. To arraig 
however, the conceded author of the “American System” at the bs 
of the people, in the then excited and inflammable condition of t 
public mind, upon the charge of consenting to sacrifice the mo; t i 
portant and hitherto the most cherished feature of that system to a 
pease the Nullifiers, and to do this when that author was smarti 
under the mortification occasioned by a most annoying defeat 
candidate for the Presidency, would have been to arouse resen 
of the fiercest nature, to brave the probable consequences of - 
required a greater degree of personal firmness than Mr. Webste: 
ever exhibited, especially in his intercourse with Mr. Clay, his | 
iar dread of giving offence to whom was perfectly well known to 
friends and to the public. Yet such a course or one which 
amounting to it on its face, could afterwards and under more el 
circumstances be made to take that shape before the Count 
or the other alternative was indispensable to the accomplishme 
Mr. Webster’s assumed object. . 
He adopted the latter plan and brought to its execution 
sagacity and adroitness he possessed, and in which he had no 
to make the positions he assumed and the ideas and expressio 
which he supported them convey to intelligent hearers and re 
significance beyond his words. He commenced his speech with 
compliment to “the purity, zeal and ability of the Senato: 
Kentucky, for whom he had long entertained a high respect 
elevate whom to a situation where his talents might be still 
beneficial to his Country he had zealously labored.” He als 
plimented for his talents and services the Senator from South Garo- 
lina (Mr. Calhoun) “with whom he had often acted and for wi 
he had always felt a sincere regard.” a 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 683 


ing tendered these olive branches to his principal antagonists, 
whom he knew at the moment to be watching his course with 
est inspection and with determination to make it as onerous to 
s possible, he proceeded to weave into his speech the grave 
ion to the measure under consideration to which I have alluded, 
of its amounting to an abandonment of the protective policy 
it security to the extensive interests that had grown up under 
, and did so without exposing himself to the responsibility of spe- 
allegations to that effect or a direct charge that it was so in- 
ded by its author. “He opposed the bill” he said, among many 
ilar things, “because it seemed to yield the constitutional power 
rotection’—because “ in giving up specific duties and substituting 
alorem the bill had abandoned the policy of all wise govern- 
ts and the policy of our own government and the policy always 
cated by the Senator from Kentucky;”—‘he could not help 
mking that panic had something to do with it and that if the 
Carolina Ordinance and replevin law had not appeared this 
would never have appeared in the Senate,” &c. &c. These are 
samples of the propositions and insinuations which pervaded the 
ech. The intelligent reader will find in it continued and unmis- 
ible traces of an effort on one hand to impute to Mr. Clay the 
n of abandoning the protective system for the purpose of tran- 
izing and conciliating the nullifiers and on the other to avoid 
roiling his personal relations with Mr. Clay by charging that 
ion too plainly, and I do not doubt that, with all his caution, 
resumed his seat under the strongest apprehension that he had 
too far. i 

t Mr. Webster was ignorant of what was passing in Mr. Clay’s 
-at the moment. Deeply impressed as the latter doubtless was 
a conviction of the importance of the service he was about to 
‘Tender to the country and anxious to perform it, that was not the 
‘only and, it is not uncharitable to suppose, the most engrossing 
er that occupied his attention. He had ascertained the cost, 
“counted noses,” and knew that a sufficient settlement of the 
cbance by which the fears of the peoplein every quarter of the 
n had been excited was in his hands and could not be prevented 
ything Mr. Webster could say or do. Without misgiving, 
fore, as to immediate results he was less sensitive as to what 
going on before his eyes while his thoughts and feelings were 
y occupied with the plan concocted between Mr. Biddle and 
for a renewed struggle on behalf of the bank and for the 
of his party widely differing both in principle and in mode 
ration from that which had ended so disastrously. That was 
er into which there is every reason to believe, Mr. Webster 


684. AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


had not been initiated, but in which his co-operation would, in ti 
be desired and, notwithstanding present complications, was CO 
dently anticipated. It would have been, therefore, inconsisten 
with Mr. Clay’s views to expose his some time friend to humiliation 
which, with the temptations recently presented by the President 
Preece might shake his fealty to the bank however stron 
the tenure by which it seemed to be held. Made more cautious h 
the lessons of a severe experience and having acquired, what is ne 
usual, with advancing years also greater self-command, Mr. i. ; 
TiPOeeee upon calculation, the impetuous retort which, at 
earlier period of his life, Cain have forced its way thro’ all sue 
restraints, not only suffered the insinuations and sinister surmis 
of his wily rival to pass unnoticed but reciprocated his compliment 
measure for measure. He opened his reply with a “high tribute 
as the reporter has it, “to the patriotism and purity ” of that gentl 
man and said that ie felt “pained exceedingly” at being’ ee 
differ from “his friend from Massachusetts,” but took care, at t 
same time, to say “how happy he was to find himself connect 
with his friend from Maine” (John Holmes) “ with whom he hé 
acted in the final adjustment of the Missouri Question.” Of bh 
speech, in other respects, I have fully spoken in my conelv dit 
strictures upon nullification 4 
Mr. Webster had thus accomplished his immediate purpose. - E 
general observations which could, at a future day, be made mie 
specific he had placed himself before the Country as the consist 
and persistent friend of a system about to be abandoned for o 
objects by him who had, hitherto, borne its standard—a system 
tho’ an abomination in the South, from which quarter he felt t 
he had nothing to expect, had been and could, he thought, be 
ridden as a political hobby in the West and was, in his own se 
a living and powerful interest, entering into the business and pe 
concern of the most active and influential portions of the pop” 
and its fortunes and the course of public men in relation to it Y 
therefore watched with all the alertness and shrewdness that ¢ 
acterize the race in that region. He had been enabled, by a goo . 
tune the source of which it is not probable that he, at the moment, 
entirely comprehended, to take this position without a collision y 
Mr. Clay ° which he had obviously and naturally anticipated ¥ 
concern, and he determined to let well alone. Although he 
tinued his opposition to the bill, offering such explanations 
thought expedient to neutralize the assaults made by other Senators 
on the grounds assumed by him and finally voting against it, he 
made no reply to Mr. Clay’s elaborate and able answer to his objec 


°MS. VI, p. 125. 


ee AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 685 


ons and, so far from taking any further steps to prevent the pas- 
of the bill, when Gov. Dickerson, an ultra protectionist, offered 
in amendments Mr. Webster prevailed on that Senator to with- 
- them, declaring that, altho’ he was satisfied that some such 
idments would become indispensable he yet thought “if the 
bill was to pass it ought to pass at once “—and it was passed. 

Having witnessed the passage of his bill by a vote of which the 
fituent parts were, on other questions and occasions, so inhar- 
ious and being assured by Mr. Calhoun that it would pacify 
ith Carolina and thus quiet the alarm seriously and universally 
rbing the public mind, Mr. Clay exulted in his new claims to a 
acter on which he had long prided himself—that of a Great 
icator. By the opportune service he had rendered them he had 
ed Mr. Calhoun and the nullifiers in a position which would not 
incline but oblige them to co-operate with him so far as related 
the President and the bank in the great struggle in which he was 
to engage, however indisposed they might be to advance his 
litical fortunes. Such successful results were certain in his case 
stir into activity the generous impulses which were deeply im- 
nted in his nature. Not content with the favourable effects which 
conciliatory course he had pursued towards Mr. Webster had 
ently produced upon that gentleman he yet felt in the mood to 
her, to turn his plastic hand from the composition of public 
nsion to the adjustment of a private quarrel, and thus to confer 
her benefit for which Mr. W.’s admirers and supporters would 
aps give him credit whether he did so or not. At the first 
nt moment after the final passage of his bill Mr. Clay arose from 
eat, and, alluding, with suitable solemnity, to the very violent 
k upon Mr. Webster by Senator Poindexter, of which I have 
e spoken, addressed the Chair, commencing as follows: 
incident occurred a few days ago which gave me very great pain and I am 
sure that in that feeling the whole Senate participated.* I allude to some 
@ observations made by the honorable Senator from Mississippi and the 
rable Senator from Massachusetts near me, With reference to an important 
n pending. I was persuaded at the time those remarks were made that 
ere the result of mutual misconception, and were to be attributed solely 
zeal which each of those honorable Senators felt—in the position in which 
ood toward each other—the one to carry, the other to defeat the measure, 
th respect to which my friend from Massachusetts and myself unfortunately 
feerent views. * * * 


. Poindexter had taken occasion to allude to the course of Mr. Webster during the 
1812, on which he commented with great severity, and compared it with the 
of Mr. Calhoun. Mr. Webster declined all explanations to the Senator from 
ppi. He said that the Senator from South Carolina was with him in the House 
esentatives at the period to which Mr. P. alluded, and if that Senator wished 
xplanation of his course at that time he would pay the most cheerful and respectful 
m to his request. But he did not feel himself called upon to take any notice of 
arks of the gentleman from Mississippi. Mr. Poindexter immediately rose and 
‘he felt the most perfect contempt for the Senator from Massachusetts.” 


686 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


By these and similar impartial and guarded observations Mr. Cla; 
got up a half friendly and explanatory colloquy between the bellige: 
ent Senators, which soon ended in shaking hands and in asseverati 
of mutual respect and good will. No one doubted that he could ha 
suppressed Poindexter’s outbreak on its first manifestation or reme 
died it at any intervening moment and all will agree that if his int 
ference was designedly delayed the moment for its exercise was ju 
ciously chosen. . 

These occurrences gave in the eyes of all and especially of Mr. Clay 
a more agreeable aspect to the closing scenes of that session than had 
been expected. They made him a happier man by far than he wa 
when he left his home for the seat of Government on the close of the 
Presidential election immediately preceding, in which he had suffer 
a signal defeat. To make up for the latter disaster, so far as that w 
possible, and for the loss to his party of the majority in the Housel 
Representatives he had, chiefly thro’ his own efforts, recruited ang 
consolidated in the Seaton body of which he was himself a 
ber and to which he looked as the theatre of the great transac 
which he hoped to see triumphantly accomplished at the next 
sion—a safe working majority, ready and able to carry out the 
gramme in the preparation of which he had borne a principal part. 

Judging by appearances only, no leave-taking between mem bel 
of a political brotherhood, at the close of an arduous and excite 
session, could have more Cea given assurance of the e 
ence of a common sympathy or of the promise of a zealous co- 
ation in their future partisan movements than that which then 
place between Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster; and yet at their very 
meeting, during the first day of the ensuing session, they prese 
themselves, as we have seen, to friends and foes, in hostile a 
against ae other, apparently as well personally as politically ; 
stranger still, the occasion of this demonstration was a proposi 
intended to have a bearing on partisan interests, by a devoted f 
of President Jackson, the opponent of both a of their co 
party. No intelligent person, conversant with the common fo 
parliamentary intercourse between public men, can read the 
account of what occurred on the discussion and disposition of 
tor Grundy’s motion without being satisfied that there is no 
geration in my description of the attitude and bearing towards 
other of those gentlemen on that occasion. A demonstration 
expected by the great body of their party and, so disastrous 
tendency would, under any circumstances, have caused conste f 
in its ranks but under those in which it was placed the alarm } pI 
duced by it was unavoidably greatly aggravated during the f 
days that its fate was suspended. Their actual condition cam 


Pe 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 687 


in a few words. The bank, then the principal element of 
political strength, had, almost immediately after the close of 
receding conflict, given unequivocal indications of a determina- 
to renew the eeale for the perpetuation of its powers and 
vileges, a determination which had received the sanction of its 
sholders and the approval of the leaders of the party on the 
port of which it counted with entire confidence. As soon as the 
essary preparations had been made it entered upon and had 
for four months engaged, at enormous sacrifices, in the pro- 
m and organization of the new materials of war which, for 
first time, were to be employed to secure success and only 
ited the meeting of Congress to “ fire the train,” and just when 
engineers were, as they flattered themselves, on the point of se- 
the fruition of their hopes and its political supporters their 
est, all was placed in jeopardy by this ill-omened breach between 
Senators who had been from the beginning its strongest and 
"generals. To give to this inopportune dissension its worst 
sct it had disclosed itself on so vital a point as the construction 
f the standing committees of the Senate which body was the in- 
d head-quarters of the bank forces and Mr. Webster had been 
ed in his adverse vote by a sufficient number of the Eastern 
ors to put Mr. Clay in a minority. AlJl will agree that such 
ture on the side of the bank could not have happened without 
eatest reasons. What were they? Mr. Grundy’s embryo in- 
ue with Mr. Webster could not have produced it on the part of 
lay because altho’ the latter might have found grounds of 
ion already produced by other causes, strengthened by the 
nous conjunction between those Senators and by his knowledge 
ve . Grundy’ s passion for what ° he regarded as allowable strategy 
isan warfare, he was not informed of its existence, as far as 
w or believe, until fifteen years afterwards. Mr. Webster’s 
ment may have been kindled by his gleanings at Philadelphia 
gard to the stringency of Mr. Clay’s requirements, but that 
have had no other or further effect; for, if Mr. C’s suspicions in 
ct to the views with which Mr. Webster reached Washington 
, well founded, the disposition of the latter to separate from him ~ 
ng from far erin motives of a very different character. 

suspicion by which Mr. Clay was led to meet Mr. Webster at 
gton as an enemy, and which was confirmed by his acci- 
conversation with me years afterwards, was that Mr. W. left 
of Government in the spring of 1833, after his peace-making 
enator Poindexter, with two settled Han pnessaeane to sup- 
im in the affection and confidence of their own party and, 


ic} 


°MS. VI, p. 130. 


688 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


gruous as they might appear to be, to secure his own elevation to t 
Presidential office at the approaching and certain vacancy. The fi 
object Mr. Clay was doubtless thoroughly conscious had never be 
absent from Mr. Webster’s thoughts since the commencement of thei 
political association, and having been, from the beginning, at a 
times exposed to attempts at its accomplishment, persistent althe 
unsuccessful, the repetition of them at the time I speak of, if 
ducted with common fairness, would not, I think, have led him ¢ 
the adoption of so decided a step towards his old political confe 
erates as that which he determined to take and did take on his arriv 
at Washington. His belief in Mr. Webster’s designs upon the Ger 
eral’s friendship was, in this instance, the revival of a suspicic 
which he, in common with almost every body else, had imbibed fre 
the eager and emphatic applauses of the doctrine of the Proclam 
tion with which Faneuil Hall had resounded on the appearance | 
that document; but his first impressions had been greatly shaken, 
not removed, = observation of the conduct of the President’s most i 
fluential ince who, for reasons to be explained hereafter, had 
turned the cold shoulder to Webster, and he had been thus induced 
to make the effort I have noticed (and in which he thought that he 
had succeeded) to secure the continued fealty of the latter to t 
bank. Mr. Webster’s course, however, during the recess, not only 
re-awakened his former suspicions but ripened them into convictions 
which he ever afterwards deemed well founded. This was, beyo 
all doubt, the state of his mind in those regards when he met | 
Webster at the Capitol a few days after the opening of the Pa 
Session. , 
If Mr. Webster’s ardor in the pursuit of the object which Mr. Clay 
assumed that he had in view was somewhat abated by the discour- 
agement to which I have just alluded it is quite certain that it 3 
renewed and strengthened during his residence at Washington th 
the short session of 1833-34. How much influence the conversation of 
Mr. Livingston and possibly of Mr. Grundy and others had in pr 
ducing this change we shall now never know, but, reassured and sai 
fied that he had, in the course of the session and of the recess, d 
what was needful to lay a secure foundation for the ultimate ace 
plishment of his purpose, save only an open rupture with Mr. © 
he accepted the terms of their future [sic] proffered by the lai 
without hesitation and, as it seemed, without apprehension. 
I have before described the impression made upon me by | 
Grundy’s communication in respect to Mr. Webster’s probable aims, 


re 


X AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 689 


yken of the absence from my own mind of such a suspicion as that 
Mr. Clay entertained, and assigned the men, by which I have 
: n induced to review the premises, from whom it is probable that 
3 conclusion was drawn. Whilst it might be considered presump- 
on in me to undertake to pronounce definitely upon their sufficiency 
m free to acknowledge their evident strength and consistency. 
ver well assured Mr. Clay might think himself of Mr. Webster’s 
rateful sense of the favor done to him at the close of the preceding 
, the nature of their past relations and considerations of the 
imp fat concerns with which it was intended that the attention 
of both should be occupied at the next rendered it likely that he 
would, during the recess, keep his eye on the movements of his 
ected co-adjutor with more than ordinary interest. President 
Jackson’s purpose to visit the Eastern States was well understood 
au eneton before Mr. Webster left that city and the expectation 
Was generally entertained that the course he had pursued in regard to 
e doctrine of nullification would call forth a more general demon- 
ration of respect from the Eastern people than might otherwise have 
exhibited. Many, perhaps most persons, would, on a first im- 
on, have taken it for granted that Mr. Webster, if he cherished 
desire attributed to him by the supposition we are consider- 
would have made it a point to be with his people on the 
ent’s arrival amongst them, to have participated in their demon- 
ons of respect, to have mingled in the combined assemblages of 
President’s political friends and his own, and so to have manoeu- 
as, without a seeming effort to that end, to cause, as he did at the 
neil Hall meeting, the eulogiums bestowed on the Chief Magis- 
e to be regarded as virtually proceeding from himself. But, in 
€ supposed, conceding to his position a portion only of the 
y and influence with which his lavish admirers invested it, he 
it well have reasoned differently in regard to the steps by which 
a coalition as that he desired should be preceded; he might well 
2 preferred a course of proceedings by which to save so great a 
ce of his personal consequence. His enthusiastic young biogra- 
and friend, March, when, treating of the proposed union, he 
¢ of Mr. Webster (who was, he says, “admirably qualified for a 
) adviser ”) becoming the great ally of General Jackson, of 
ing his admiration by the majesty of his intellect ” and supply- 
the mind to plan what the other would have had the heart to 
2,” may have come nearer to Mr. Webster’s views of what would 
been the character of a union between Gen. Jackson and himself. 
ever way Mr. W. may have reasoned on the subject his actions 
aly were most in harmony with this idea. So far was he from 
* pains to be at home when the President arrived in Massa- 
1127483°—vor 2—20 —44 


— 


690 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, ee a 


chusetts that he selected the entire period of the General’s 
New England for his famous Western tour, which by his biograph 
is described as having been “one continual ovation” and by 1] 
friends of the National Intelligencer as “ an excursion in the progres 
of which he wrought little less than a miracle upon party feuds an 
divisions in the Western country’ —setting forth, as its most gra 
ful trophy, a letter by which Mr. Grundy, in connection with sever 
of Gen. Jackson’s friends and neighbours at Nashville and othe el 
without distinction of party, invite him, in highly complimentai 
terms, to visit that city and its neighbourhood. By the adoption 
this course Mr. Webster was enabled to give more dignity and great 
efficacy to such tributes of respect to the public acts of the Preside 
as he might desire to pay them. Instead of speaking to that hi 
officer as the chairman of a committee or as the mover of resol ior 
at a public meeting, conveying his own sentiments modified by th 
of others, as would have been the case if he had waited to receiv 
in the vicinity of his own home, he could now speak in his own: 
‘and, if he chose so to do, the unmixed feelings of his heart, ax 
stead of addressing him in the midst of a population a majori 
whom the President very well knew would never so far subdue 
inveterate prejudices or recant their old and rooted doctrines 
become his sincere supporters, he could say what he might des 
him or at him in the hearing of any portion of the people of the 
whom he should have reason to think best adapted to his purpos 
Mr. Webster was then and had always been a party man, cer 
among the strictest if not also among the bitterest of his sec 
at his views to doff his partisan character and armor on this te 
and his political opponents, having been the victors in the last gt 
contest and resting in possession of the Government, were not | 
posed to meet his advances and to receive so distinguished a 
under such circumstances, with frank cordiality. How consi 
assumption of this non-combatant appearance was with the 
and actual views of his party will be best considered ° when w 
of the finishing touch which he gave to this peace professing, 2 
if not also, in a special sense, peace making enterprize. 
Public disses eo nomine, were, with a single exception (a 
cinnati), avoided, but he accompanied large parties on - 
excursions, received addresses, and noticed their contents w 
related to particular points in the improvement of the © 
the latter subject, with the promise of further advancem 
the favorable character of the people, constituting the staple 
speeches. Party politics were studiously eschewed or p 
There was not a word spoken any where, save at Cincin 


°MS. VI, p. 135.. 


_ AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 691 


at which place was not published, to which the warmest ad- 
f the President could not have listened without recelving 
nce. Apparently Mr. Webster reserved all that he wished at 
; time to say of politics, past, present, and future, and of the 
tse of President Jackson in that connection for his speech at 
gh, in the State of Pennsylvania, at which point his Western 
erminated. The unsurpassed fidelity of that great State to the 
al and the anxious solicitude felt by the people of Pittsburgh, 
as by those of the State at large, for the maintenance of the 
ye system were known to every body and by none better 
od than by the orator. It is fair to presume that these were 
mong the reasons by which he was induced to consider Pittsburgh 
2 most eligible place for the promulgation of the views expressed 
m that speech in regard to his own course and that of President 
Jackson in the suppression of nullification and to the importance of 
protective system, of which he thought himself entitled, after 
proceedings of the past winter, to the distinction of being re- 


romised to the printer, was never furnished, this, having been 
ublished from the notes of a professional stenographer, was, 
afterwards, revised and materially enlarged by Mr. Webster 
and republished in Niles’ Register, the principal mouthpiece 
protectionists. Mr. W’s uniform friend, the venerable James 
an old school and consistent federalist, was chairman of the 
ttee of Invitation, which was mainly if not wholly com- 
of Mr. Webster’s political adherents, and the Mayor of the 
who presided, manifested himself a zealous member of the 
2 denomination. The meeting was held in a grove and was 
ded by some three thousand of the citizens of Pittsburgh and 
cinity. Mr. Webster was presented to the assemblage by the 
or in a brief address full charged with compliments but dis- 
ly engrossed, however, with the domestic questions and con- 
of the Country in respect to which Mr. W’s latter opinions 
best accorded with those of Pennsylvania, placing Nullification 
rotective system in the front ground: 

men, [he said] we are this day Citizens of the United States. 
ion is safe. Not a star has fallen from that proud banner 
nd which our affections have so long rallied and when, with de- 
ful assurance, we cast our eyes on the eventful history of the last 
we recall the gloomy apprehensions and perhaps hopeless 
ney which came over us, who, gentlemen, can learn without 


692 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


a glow of enthusiasm that the great Champion of the Constitution 
that Daniel Webster is now in the midst of us! To his mighty : 
tellect the nation, with one voice, confided its cause—of life or 
Shall there be withheld from the triumphant advocate a nation 
gratitude! 

It is worthy of remark that neither in giving this well deserve 
prominence to the subject of nullification nor in his earnest appe 
for the nation’s gratitude for its rescue from the perils that ha 
environed it was the name of Andrew Jackson even mentioned, « 
his participation in that great deliverance alluded to unless such 
the design of the paragraph. immediately following this outburst ¢ 
admiration and praise of Mr. Webster which aimed to show # 
superior usefulness, in the then situation of the Country, of “ int 
lectual pre-eminence ” over appeals to “the sword and the bayonet 
Whence arose this singular omission, rendered the more striking 
the place where and the people before whom it occurred, it is n 
easy to discover; whether we are to attribute it to the sympathy 
the Mayor (whose name is not recorded) with the feelings of t 
venerable chairman of the Committee who, from being at first 
zealous advocate of Gen. Jackson’s election, had turned stron 
against him when he found that he had mistaken the bent 
political sentiments, or whether it was the result of design to 
crease the credit and to swell the éclat of Mr. Webster’s very dif 
ent course—whatever may have been the motive the latter di 
fail to give to the President’s good conduct the same promi 
which had been accorded to his own by the Mayor and treat 
subject in a way with which the friends of Jackson had reason t 
satisfied. He spoke of him as a “patriotic chief magistrate” 
was “true to every duty” and who, “when the crisis arriy 
which our Constitution was in danger,” stepped forward in i 
fence in a spirit which had induced him (Mr. Webster) to yield 
a tame me hesitating but a cordial and efficient support to 
measures.’ 

In all this Mr. Webster did no more than the culpable aa 
of the Mayor and the other circumstances of the case impose ed 1 
him as a duty. In a subsequent part of his address, but bel 
he had quitted the general subject, he availed himself of the of 
tunity to commend the views in regard to the conduct of the G 
ernment which he had found to prevail in the course of h is 
and in that connection to add what follows: a 

I know that those who have seen fit to entrust to me, in part, their int 
in Congress approve of the measures recommended by the President 
see that he has taken occasion, during the recess of Congress, to 
part of the Country; and we know how he has been received. Nowher 
hands been extended with more sincerity of friendship; and, for one, ¢ 


A AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 693 
en, I take occasion to say that, having heard of his return to the seat of 
( ent with health rather debilitated, it is among my most earnest 
that Providence may spare his life and that he may go through with 
Iministration and come out with as much success and glory as any 
his predecessors, 
Having paid this tribute of respect to the President and offered 
these earnest prayers for his future success, Mr. Webster next 
i to the sentiments favorable to himself as the friend of 
stic industry, expressed by the Mayor, as to a matter of which 
as evidently full and fully prepared to speak. He did not refer 
he bill Mr, Clay had, three months before, introduced and caused 
be passed to quiet South Carolina,’ and of which he (Mr. W.) 
said, from his place in the Senate, that he opposed it because 
mposed a restriction upon the future legislation of Congress, be- 
se “it seemed to yield the constitutional power of protection ” 
and because “in giving up specific duties and substituting ad. 
walorem, the bill had abandoned the policy of all wise governments 
the policy of our own government and the policy always advo- 
d by the Senator from Kentucky”. I did say he did not name 
bill at Pittsburgh but he spoke at it with great power and, 
btless, with great effect upon minds so strongly predisposed 
st it as were those of the manufacturing population of that 
in a speech which had been obviously prepared with unusual 
we and research, which aimed to place the subject in new lights and 
tom the influence of which it was apparent that much was expected. 
le spoke of the protective system as a policy which Massachusetts 
jad not originated and to which she was not originally favorable, 
vhich had been brought into existence by the overwhelming influence 
|t New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio (the States to which he had 
ade the visit he was then upon the point of closing,) but in which 
d acquiesced after it was thus adopted. Hie said that they had 
their capital and labor to it—that ° they had become wedded 
so that “there was now no shade of difference between the 
sts of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.”° “We shall not,” 
he, “ yield it without a struggle, neither shall we yield the prin- 
f protection, without a severe struggle, under any circumstances 
ver.” 
treated the subject throughout as if the questions of yielding 
stem and its constitutionality had been newly put in issue 
nder circumstances of menace and peculiar danger to its ex- 
ace. He introduced as new a detailed and very interesting state- 
nt of the proceedings of the mechanics of Boston— the workers 
to modify the Act of the fourteenth of July * * * and all other Acts 


ties on imports. Approved March 2, 1833. 
‘VI, p. 140. 


694. AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


in [leather?], in tin, in iron, &c.”—before the adoption of the Bi 
eral Constitution, to show not only the influence they exe1 
favor of protection but that to those proceedings in all proba 
was ascribable a controlling effect in producing the ratification 
{the Constitution itself, and concluded by saying: Q 4 
Under these circumstances it cannot be expected that we of New England y 
readily abandon our ground. We are ready to do more work with less ] ‘ 
tection, if that will answer, but we yet believe that the power is in the Coi 
tion and I do not believe that it is within my competency to draw my i 
across that power: &c. &¢. 
I quote from the stenographic report of the Speech, publishes ed 
Niles’ Register of July 27th, 1833.1 
It was not likely that Mr. Clay would read so impassioned a pai 
gyric of a man whose power with the people he had already n m 
reason to be convinced but with whom he was preparing for anoth 
and final struggle, or so fervent a prayer for the success of ar 
ministration which he and Mr. Biddle were providing the me 
overthrow, or an attack so vigorous and almost undisguised up 
title to the position which it had been the labor of his life to establ 
for himself, that of leading advocate and friend, in the eye of 
Country, of the protective system, coming from aah a sou e | 
promulgated at such a moment without, at least, imbibing a su 
cion that he and his party had as much to ippreheat from Mr. 4 
ster, in proportion to his means, as from President Jackson or 
of ne political adherents. Still I do not think that he. woul 
thought it expedient, if Mr. Webster had been content to | 
matter rest as it then stood, to break with him at that critical ji 
ture. Thoroughly satisfied as he might have been, by this last 
velopment, of the impossibility of maintaining friendly politi 
lations permanently with Mr. Webster, he, nevertheless, kne 
depth of the distrust with which the latter was regarded by thi 
of what was called the Jackson party and by its most in 
leaders and he might have been induced to look upon efforts 
a foothold in that quarter as so hopeless as to make it hi 
course to shut his eyes to them and to trust to the power of 
to secure indispensable cooperation. He had been not a 
fluenced in the adoption of the conciliatory course he had 
towards Mr. W. at the preceding session by the knowledge 
sessed on this point and by what he saw of the extent to whi 
gentleman had increased the obstacles to his progress in th 
tion indicated by the clumsy and unwise manner in which he 
vised and conducted the proceedings of his Faneuil Hall m 
the occasion of the first appearance of the Proclamation. 
such as no practical man, with only a moderate share of cot 


cae 


1Vol. 44, p. 362. 


uf ” “-_ - 
er Sy 


_ AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 695 


wld have failed to avoid. Gen. Jackson was in Congress 
the first term of Washington’s Presidency when the germs of 
cal creed which has been, in its leading features, in suc- 
that of the old republican the anti-federal and democratic 
were first planted in the public mind, and he had imbibed, 
ent heretofore stated an abiding sense of the justice and wis- 
its doctrines. I have heretofore also remarked that, whilst 
and fundamental principles were never obscured or shaken 
his mind or heart, he had doubtless lost, in some degree, during 
g military service and consequent withdrawal from and indit. 
to party contests, his familiarity with the history of some of 
cular tenets and the perception of their constant application 
portance. How far the character of the Government, other- 
ainly defined, had been affected by the declarations of the pre- 
which had been affixed to the Constitution was one of the 
questions between the old republican and federal parties of 
od. The different effect of the adoption of the one or of 
- interpretation has been elsewhere described. The doctrine 
| democratic party in that regard, which is identical with that 
y insisted on by the early republicans, was supposed to have 
2] ored im the construction of the Proclamation and the ancient 
deral dogma to have been recognised in its place and the Faneuil 
Il meeting, called to consider and express an opinion upon that 
te Paper, seemed. determined that nothing in respect to the 
of its action should be left to inference. Its resolutions, 
ered by his friend Col. Perkins but bearing unmistakably the im- 
ess Of Mr. Webster’s mind, and doubtless dictated if not written 
him, gave special prominence to the rival definitions which had 
long the subject of dispute between the two great parties of 
mtry, claimed to find the federal doctrine asserted in the 
ation and adopted by the President and, with that under- 
of the scope and spirit of that document, expressed the 
st approval of them and pledged them the support of the 
le apprehension that the Proclamation was in truth obnoxious 
ch construction, strengthened by these proceedings, cost the 
& many friends, particularly in the Southern States. John 
seized the opportunity and, taking advantage of the fact 
Col. Perkins, who offered the resolutions and Harrison G. Otis, 
adv acated them in an able speech—two gentlemen of as high 
pal honor and probity as any of whom the Country could 
ha composed a majority of the Commission sent by the 
ttord Convention to the Seat of Government, and were met on 
Wa y thither, denounced the President, as I have elsewhere de- 


e~ .>- ee 


~ 


696 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


scribed, for having “ disavowed the principles to which he owed h 
election to the Chief Magistracy of the Government of the U. S.”— 
for having “transferred his real friends and supporters, bound han 
and foot, to his and their bitterest enemies, the ultra-federalist 
ultra-bank, ultra-tariff, ultra-Internal Improvement and Hartfor 
Convention men—the habitual scoffers of State Rights,” &c. Thes 
effects of the Boston meeting, added to his previous observation ¢ 
the distrust and even dislike of Mr. Webster manifested, on man 
occasions, by the great body of the friends of the Administratio 
might well, as I have remarked, have inclined Mr. Clay to rely up 
the Bieta they presented to any eilective coalition between th 
and determined him to take no public notice of Mr. Webster’s move 
ment at Pittsburgh if it had ended there. « i, 
But the latter was not content with the matter as it stood. 
stenographer’ s report of his speech was published in Niles’ Reg 
in July, 1833; it was subsequently announced in a Boston new 
that he was Eneeeedls in revising it and in the issue of the same jo 
nal of October 12th? the revised copy made its appearance. 
was after the expedients of the bank to produce a pecuniary pr 
sure had begun to operate, after‘its agents and the opposition pres 
had partially succeeded in alarming the Country with vague app 
hensions of distress and ruin to be brought upon it by Gen. Jack 
interference with its credits and currency, after Mr. Duane had b 
removed by the President because he refused to fulfill his pre om 
either to carry out his policy or to resign, after the State ban ks h 
been selected as depositories of future public revenues and i 
every corner of the land was ringing with denunciations against 
President as a tyrant whose ignorance and lawless violence were f 
consigning its interests and its Institutions to disgrace and 
tion. If Mr. Clay’s mind had been entirely unprejudiced in 
to Mr. Webster—as it probably was not—it would have been 
for him to assign an adequate motive, other than the one noy 
subject of our consideration, for the publication, at that juncture 
a friend of the bank, ranking at least second among the leader 
the party by ° which it was sustained, of a new and revised edi 
of a Speech the material points of which, as has been shown, 
sisted, 1st of a denunciation of nullification and nullifiers and an 
comiastic account of the successful efforts, by Jackson and 


Vol. 45, p. 107. : ° MS. VI, p. 145. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 697 


: of their hands. To the first branch of this studied address it 
not be objected that it was not both just and true; but the flag 
cation was struck, the cause and its champions, politically 
ig, were ruined. sod roti em battle over 1 spa bono 


ent on the soa of hie S nsertde of the oma The nulli- 
d their able leaders were, at least quasi friends of that insti- 
on, many from choice and all from hatred to President Jackson, 
arch foe of nullification. The first report of Mr. Webster’s 
had said enough on the subject and in the General’s favor to 
y his warmest admirers, but even that was materially enlarged 
revised production, notwithstanding the extent to which orig- 
al differences between the political friends respectively of the 
dent and the Orator had increased in violence since the appear- 
of the first publication. Whilst everything contained in the 
ter was retained in the former, including the earnest prayer for 
» success of the administration, the following entire sentence 
t hic h we cannot suppose would have been omitted by the ste- 
aed if it had been spoken at Pittsburgh) was published in the 
m edition : “ 
While I am willing as others to admit that the President has, on other occa- 
ons, rendered important services to the Country, and especially on that occa- 
povitich has given him so much military renown, I yet think the ability and 
cision with which he resisted the disorganizing doctrines of nullification cre- 
> claim than which he has none higher to the gratitude of the Country and 
spect of posterity. 
suming that it was at that time Mr. Webster’s expectation to re- 
with the party which had then already entered on a new cam- 
ig zn, designed to be one of active and unremitting hostilities, against 
a dministration for the prosperity and final success of which he, 
ran interval, repeated so fervent a prayer and on whose Chief he 
au s renewed and accumulated encomiums, without being called to 
urn to the subject by any public considerations of which the pub- 
:were informed, we are obliged to acknowledge a display of politi- 
|magnanimity on his part, as commendable as it was rare at an era 
a passed partisan violence. In reference, also, to Mr. Web- 
ster’s own services the revised edition materially amplified the report 
the stenographer. By the latter the Speaker was made to say that 
gave to the President’s measures “ not a tame and hesitating but 
rdial and efficient support;” in the former the reviser thought it 
1 a ent to add the following: 
is true, doubtless, that if myself and others had surrendered ourselves to a 
of opposition we might have embarrassed and probably defeated the 


> of the administration, but in so doing we should, in my opinion, have 
2 to our own characters, false to our duty and false to our Country. 


yy 


698 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


Considerms that Mr. Clay, tho’ openly opposed to nullifics 
and favorable to the passage of the Force bill, had left the Cham ber 
on. the night when it was ordered to be oneal on account, as hy 
subsequently said, of the impure state of its atmosphere, and his feeble 
health, and had deities spoken for its passage nor recorded his x 
in its Pan on the last reading of the bill, and that he was the only 
Senator favorable to the measure of aia that could be said, is it 
not difficult to imagine that whilst by the Speech as first reported 
so emphatically clearing his own skirts of the imputation of content t 
ing himself with giving to the President, in a great crisis, “a L 
and hesitating support,” or again when mowtle afterwards, prepar 
ing in his closet these invectives against those who had Seen them 
selves capable of acting differently from himself, it never occurre 
to Mr. Webster that Mr. Clay’s enemies would say and his fri 
apprehend that he was the person aimed at by these virtual an 
violent denunciations? 

But the revised Speech contained another new sentence whic 
would seem to have a still more significant bearing upon this p 
We have already spoken of the heart burnings that had been ca se 
by the effort, so transparent in éhe proceedings of the meeting a 
Faneuil Hall, to represent Gen. Jackson as having sanctioned polities 
principles directly in opposition to those he cherished in early 
and of the consequent dissatisfaction of many of his friends exhib 
in their bearing towards Mr. Webster. No attempt to explain the 
effort away or to blunt the force of its recoil is found in the spe cl 
at Pittsburgh as reported, but in the revised edition this omis 1 
appears to be supplied by the following sentence. When comment 
ing the Proclamation the Orator is made to say: Ls 

“y would not be understood to speak of particular clauses” al 
phrases in the Proclamation ’”—(which were specifically set. 
in the Faneuil Hall resolutions) —“but its great and leading | 
trines,” which had nowhere been called in question by the 
- dent’s anti-nullifying friends. " 

I cannot see how any other construction can be placed upon @ 
introduction of this observation than that it evinced a desir 
conciliate the President and his friends as respected the Speal a 
or rather the wrzter, by dissociating the latter from the unaeccep ab 
tenor of the resolutions of the Faneuil Hall meeting. a 

But the most labored endeavor of Mr. Webster, in this movement 
was to amplify and improve his disquisitions regarding the prote 
tive system—its importance and the necessity of efforts for i 
preservation. If the reasons for the revision of the speech under th 
circumstances were inconceivable those for an elaborate vindi 
and advocation of the protective system at that particular mom 


ce and favor of the protectionists, were even more so. The 
2 and extent of the protection to be given to the domestic in- 
y of the Country had been settled by a law just enacted, which 
by its terms, to remain in force for a long series of years. In 
eech on its passage Mr. Webster had raised an issue for the 
asserting in as open a manner as he thought eligible and safe 
is then position—the affirmative of that issue, to wit: that the 
ll abandoned the principle of protection, and insinuating that it 
was founded on concessions that the system was unconsitutional and 
hat it had been sacrificed to the menaces of South Carolina. At no 
ime, after the adjournment, did he either agitate the subject with 
he avowed object of obtaining a repeal of the law or make a distinct 
point that the bill which had been passed involved an abadonment 
of the protective system, and yet he devoted himself industriously 
9 the work of magnifying the importance of the system in the esti- 
ion of the people, portraying the evils that would befall the 
Jountry if it was abandoned, and directing popular distrust at men 
md measures which might be supposed to favor such a result. To 
ave contended before the people, after its passage, that Mr. Clay’s 
was such a measure would have been received by that gentlemen’s 
as a direct attack upon him and was therefore deemed inex- 
ent; the course adopted was as well calculated to weaken Mr. 
y with the proiectionists and was therefore preferred. Would 
his faculties have been indeed obtuse if Mr. Clay had failed to 
se in all Mr. Webster’s movements, since their last parting, the most 
atisfactory proof that his objects were to unhorse the acknowledged 
Teac er of the opposition and to conciliate the good will and support 
f President Jackson and of as many as pesaide of his friends in 
3 own favor for the succession, in the form and to the extent which 
fter developments might show to be practicable and auspicious? 
iatever may be our ae as to Mr. Clay’s judgment or dis- 
m us exhibited in guarding himself against the dangers by which 
$ political positions were threatened there was never good reason 
question his intelligence or accuracy in penetrating the designs ° 
Mssopponents. Perhaps the former object required more habitual 
mtrol than may be ascribed to him, whilst for success in the 
he was amply qualified by the genius with which nature had 
diy endowed him. He, in all probability, apprehended Mr. 
er’s views before he came to Washington at the meeting of 
ress, and his convictions in regard to them were riveted within 
0 days after Mr. W.’s arrival by the demonstration made by the 
er on Grundy’s motion, which aimed a blow directly at a material 


° MS. VI, p. 150. 


700 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


point in his own position and by which, if successful, that positial n 
might be overthrown. He had done i) that he could do at Phila- 
delphia to protect himself, the bank and his party from Mr. Web- 
ster’s expected defection cad he met what he could not but regard a 
the first development of his meditated treachery with feeling: 
plainly enough manifested and yet, in an unusual and creditable 
degree controlled. 
I have said that Mr. Clay’s suspicions in relation to the aims of 
Mr. Webster went further than my own. This will not surprise th 
reader when I inform him that I never saw the proceedings on M 
Grundy’s motion for the postponement of the choice of committees 
never read the Pittsburgh speech, never knew of the pains taken b 
its author to revise and republish it shortly before the meeting 0 of 
Congress, and knew nothing of what I am now enabled to add t LC 
these indications bearing upon the point until I sat down to prepaz 
what I thought it proper to say of the conversation between Mir 
Clay and myself, the last time I saw him, in respect to Mr. Webster 
My faith in the unalterable sincerity of Gen. Jackson’s friondalll 
had been so fortified by past experience that I was not accessibl 
to suspicion or apprehension on that point. I recognized at the sam 
time fully the extent to which I was exposed, as his anticipated sue 
cessor, to the assaults of my political enemies and found all the time 
I eral spare from my public duties sufficiently occupied in watch 
ing and thwarting their intrigues against myself. Assuming, per 
haps hastily, that the one under consideration did not reach beyond 
the rivalries between Messrs. Clay and Webster, the existence ¢ 
which had been notorious to all parties, and having, as I though 
protected the General against injury from that quarter I troukls le 
myself no farther with it or about it. The first thing to which a 
attention was now called was the debate on Mr. Grundy’s motio 
and from that I was led, step by step, and with continually inerea 
ing interest, into a peneral review of the intercourse between i 
distinguished men at that critical period. The principal results F 
that review I have placed before my readers as a portion of histo ‘y 
in which they can not fail to take an interest in some degree pi 
portioned to my own. eon 
Whilst engaged on this part of my work some additional matter . 
first came to my knowledge which, I cannot but think, throws much 
light upon the general subject. A friend sent me, shortly after its” 
appearance, a neatly bound volume entitled ‘“ Reminiscences of Co 
gress, by Charles W. March,” + containing a biography of Daniel 
Webster, with brief notices of the sayings and doings of sey 


among his contemporaries and co-actors in the principal scenes 


*New York, 1850. It is principally a biography of Webster. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 701 


bed by the author. Mr. March is a native of New Hampshire, 
which state Mr. Webster was also born) and a young gentleman, 
m told, not only highly esteemed by Mr. W. but one in whom 
latter reposed a marked confidence and with whom he cultivated 
sree of intimacy not usual between gentlemen of so great dis- 
ty in years. It has so happened that I have never made Mr. 
rch’s acquaintance but from my knowledge of the high character 
elder branches of his family, I am fully prepared to find him 
worthy of the regard and confidence bestowed upon him by 
of the most if not the most distinguished man his native state 
is produced. His book was published in 1851, at a moment when 
. Webster’s own mind and the minds of his particular admirers 
e turned, in one of their periodical and always unsuccessful 
to raise him to the Presidency, to the then approaching Presi- 
ntial election. As before intimated whilst I was actually employed 
the preparation of these pages one of my sons approached me 
th Mr. March’s work in his hand and called my attention to an 
utation which the author assumes that Mr. Calhoun cast upon 
in his speech on the Force bill. Having altogether forgotten 
the book was in my possession I asked my son how he came by 
and was told that he had accidentally laid his hand on it while 
ching the library shelves for another volume, and opening it 
passage referred to caught his eye. Better acquainted with the 
ents of that day than the author I found no difficulty in satisfy- 
my son that Mr. March had mistaken Mr. Calhoun’s intention, 
ich was to apply the observation attributed to him to Major Eaton 
ead of to myself; but struck by the cleverness and I ought to add 
to me, unexpected fairness in many respects of a work which 
d only have carelessly glanced at, if at all, when it was re- 
ved, I read the whole of it including, to my very great surprise, 
following passages: 

Speaking of the years 1833-34 (page 250), the author says: 

A community of sentiment and action, in this fearful crisis of our national 
y, brought Gen. Jackson and Mr. Webster into stricter intimacy, social 
political, than had previously ever subsisted between them. Some of the 
eral’s friends hoped, and more feared, a closer official relationship. In 
of this year Mr. Webster journeyed West; returning in June he met Mr. 
gston in New York, then preparing to depart on his mission to France. 
understood at this time in private and confidential circles, that, before 
€ Washington, Mr. Livingston had had frequent and earnest conversations 
on Jackson in relation to Mr. Webster’s position; and that he had urged 
on “him the absolute necessity of securing Mr. Webster’s continued support of 
ninistration To his suggestions Gen. Jackson gave a favorable ear and 
ence; and authorized Mr. Livingston to approach Mr. Webster upon the 
‘ These conversations and their result Mr. Livingston, in his interview 
him in New York, communicated to Mr. Webster. That a seat in the 
inet was at the same time proposed to Mr, Webster, on the part of the 


« ” “44 


702 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.  __ 


. y. ; 
President, thro’ the same medium of communication, was a belief warmly 
tertained by some of the nearest friends of both parties. One fact. it is” 
able to mention; a distinguished Senator, a political and personal frien 
Gen. Jackson, brought Mr. Webster a list of the intended nominees for o: 
in the Eastern States and asked him to erase therefrom the names of 
personally objectionable to him. This Mr. Webster declined to do, not wish 
to place himself under any obligations to the administration that might qualif, 
the freedom of his action, either in support or repudiation of its measures. 


To appreciate the weight to which this statement, coming 
so credible a source, is entitled in forming an opinion upon the 
justice of Mr. Clay’s suspicions, the reader has only to call to x 
that these sayings and doings at Washington are described as 
ing occurred shortly before and during Mr. Webster’s Western tou 
in the progress of which he crowned President Jackson, as we have 
seen, with rhetorical palms for his course in respect to nullificat 1 
and offered up eloquent prayers for the preservation of the Gene: 
health and for the success of his future career, and further, 
the opportune, if not appointed interview with Mr. Livingsto: 
New York, took place when Mr. Webster was on his return fi 
that famous and ominous expedition. My reference to the 
bility of the source from which the statement I have extracted 
ceeds is on the assumption, the correctness of which’ I cannot do 
that it would not have been thrown before the Country, under 
own name, by a gentleman standing in the relation towards © 
Webster occupied by Mr. March, without having been first submit 
to the inspection and revisal of the former, so far at least as ¢ 
cerned the accuracy of the facts set forth, several of which 
only have come from himself, 

The question how far Mr. Livingston was warranted in the di 
rations he is here represented to have made to Mr. Webster, | 
what Gen. Jackson was desirous or inclined to do for Mr. 
political advancement, or to mark his sense of that gentl 
services, deserves and will presently receive full consideration. * 
is no reason to suppose that Mr. Webster had any doubts of 
authenticity and how far he was himself willing to go in 
rocating the friendly dispositions attributed to the President 
Mr. Livingston’s and Mr. March’s authority, we have ende: 
to show. Waiving, however, for the present, the consideration 
the accuracy of the statement in all other respects there is one ] 
nant reflection that can hardly fail to present itself at once t 
mind of my readers. Assuming that its principal contents: 
derived from Mr. Webster, either directly or indirectly, as justi 
Mr. March, who sets aan forth so confidently, requires tha 
should assume and as was doubtless the fact, and considering 


°MS. VI, p. 155. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 703 


in connection with the steps taken by Mr. Webster, after 
eturned from his Western trip, in respect to his Pittsburgh 
spee +h, and his overture to Mr. Grundy, there cannot remain a oae 
; nid think, on the part of any intelligent person that Mr, Clay’s 
spicions as to the condition and employment of Mr. Webster’s 
nd at that period were in the main correct, whatever may have 
_the specific ends he aimed at or whatever the degree of ma- 
turity at which his plans may have arrived. 

Mr. March, as well as Mr. Webster, if we assume that he was 
ognisant of the statements put forth by Mr. M. were obviously not 
tle embarrassed by the incongruity of the friendly relations 
ich are alleged to have existed between Mr. W. and President 
son, at the time referred to, with the fact that, only a few 
mths thereafter, the former was found closely allied with Messrs. 
and Calhoun in the most violent efforts to obstruct the Gen- 
administration and to degrade him as a public man by per- 
ding the Country that he had played the part of a tyrant and 
rper of powers not conferred on him by the Constitution which 
had sworn to “preserve, protect and defend.” It could not have 
ed such shrewd minds that the transition from the alleged 
dial alliance to the indisputable bitter assault was so sudden that 
n would either discredit the report of the former or condemn Mr. 
bster for his share in the latter. Accordingly an apology for 
great and rapid change in Mr. W’s opinions of and dispositions 
rds the President is sought in that fertile theme of partisan 
tation—the removal of the Government deposits from the vaults 
the bank of the United States to those of the State banks; but 
fortunately for the writer, as well as for the subject of his defence, 
excuse is wholly demolished by the irresistible logic of dates. 
he removal of the Government deposits [says Mr. March] however justi- 
on the ground of expediency or even necessity was a measure of such 
dable energy as to confound some of the General’s longest tried and not 
timid supporters. It encountered Mr. Webster’s opposition and even 
ciation. And this honest difference of opinion in regard to a matter 
emporary importance, prevented the union of the two master spirits of the 
nd blasted the patriotic hopes of the Country. 

The unsatisfactory character of this explanation must be admit- 
hen it is considered that Mr. Webster’s high wrought enco- 
upon the General’s conduct and earnest prayers for his suc- 
and glory in the administration of the Government, revised and 
arged by the author in a second edition, were, without the occur- 
f any circumstance making such a course necessary to his 
ndication but of his mere motion, scattered broad-cast through 
untry not only months after the deposits had been ordered 
be thus removed but after that act of the President and the dis- 


704. AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


missal of Mr. Duane had been made the subject of partisan clame 
and denunciation on the part of Mr. Webster’s political associate 
and that the attempted intrigue thro’ Mr. Grundy was not entere 
upon until after those associates and the friends of the bank 
assembled at Washington, at the commencement of the session, pr 
pared to open their batteries upon the President for the very “ mea 
ure of formidable energy ” described. 
Of the correctness of Mr. March’s statement of what Mr. Livin; 
ston said and thought I know nothing. I can conceive of no ad 
quate motive in Mr. Webster at that time to misrepresent the ma 
to his confidential friends, and Mr. March was certainly free fron 
any inducement even to exaggerate it further than the desire nat 
ural to an ardent young man to place the standing of his frien 
upon the highest ground. But that there existed on the part: 01 
both and of Mr. Livingston also, if he made the representation 
attributed to him, the grossest delusion upon the principal point j 
very certain. Gen. Jackson’s feelings towards Mr. Livingston wer 
the same as my own, uniting with a sincere and strong persona 
regard a disposition to do all in our power to advance his inte e 
and to promote his own happiness and welfare and those of hi 
family. These dispositions were never suffered to fail of effect bi 
cause of what we regarded as political aberrations on his part. 
knew from the beginning that he differed from us on several of t 
important issues of the day, such as the bank, internal improy 
ments, &c., but we never permitted such differences to affect o1 
personal feelings towards him. We were well aware that he ws 
more at his ease in talking and not unfrequently in acting upe . 
public questions in the company of Mr. Webster and Mr. Biddl 
than with us, but we could afford te indulge him and did so, know 
ingly, in that also. The strength and constancy of those feelings 
on my part, as well as the extent to which they were communicated 
to my family, may be inferred from the fact that a favorite gram 
son of mine, now twelve years old, bears his name, which was given 
to him with my hearty approval. The General’s opportunities for 
ascertaining the measure of Mr. Livingston’s adaptation to the d 
ferent branches of the public service had been fuller than my ov 
and fullest, perhaps, when the latter had been a member of his 
military family at a difficult and highly responsible period in his 
life. The result had been a conviction that Mr. Livingston, for | 
reasons which, so far from lessening, increased his regard for 
as a man, was illy qualified for the performance of executive d 
Hence his resistance to my recommendation of Mr. L. for the 
of Secretary of State, on my own resignation, and the relu , 
with which he finally yielded that point to my earnest solicitations. 


< 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 705 


ed not say how forcibly and, I may add, painfully I was re- 
of that reluctance, and of the reasons that were assigned for 
finding Gen. Jackson, on my return from England, opposed 
leading members of his Cabinet on the vital question of his 
istration—that of the bank—with Mr. Livingston at their 
That he had found no reason, after I left the Country, to 
the opiniens expressed to me on the occasion referred to will 
by his letter addressed to me at London, of the day of 
183—*, in which the same views are repeated and in which 
urged to return and to resume the place in his Cabinet which 
had resigned. Those who understood the General’s character 
ould find it difficult to believe that, how great soever his respect 
pr him, Mr. Livingston was the man by whose counsels he would 
been at all likely to be influenced in a matter which had al- 
ly cost him so much trouble as that of the constitution of his 

net. 
s Mr. Livingston believed all he reported to Mr. Webster, 
ever that may have been, there is no reason for doubt; but he 
yas, from the state of his own feelings, in danger of misinterpreting 
rh at the General said or of overlooking its intended limitation. He 
as for many reasons very partial to Mr. Webster. The latter had 
cen the lead in sustaining his draft of the Proclamation,? in respect 
hich he was very sensitive, more so than I could have imagined. 
Webster had also supported his nomination as Minister to France 
the bitter opposition of Mr. Clay, regarding whom the preju- 
# both ran very high. Indeed the harsh course pursued to- 
Mr. Livingston on that occasion, in again bringing forward, 
the lapse of so many years, the charge of official defalcation 
Attorney for the New York District, under Mr. Jefferson, had 
sperated Mr. L. (in general a most amiable and placable man), 
lay him open to almost any lawful approaches that promised 
tify his resentment against Mr. Clay, and there is some reason 
ehend, to efface also, for the nonce, all recollection of the 
y part I had acted towards him, without the aid of which 
nly would not have been Secretary of State or probably 
to France—there having been a pretty direct connection 
m the possession of the one place and the bestowment of the 
‘I need not say that Mr. Webster had also grudges against 
Know Mr. Livingston is anxious to go abroad, and I am as anxious again to 
hear me, and it would afford me pleasure to gratify both. I find on many 
want your aid & Haton’s—I have to labour hard, and constantly watchfull— 
in the State Department and Eaton in the War, with the others, filled as 
it would be one of the strongest and happiest administrations that could be 


Jackson to Van Buren, December 17, 1831. Van Buren Papers, 
*s Nullification Proclamation. 


483°—vor 2—20——-45 


706 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. __ 


Mr. Clay which he had wintered and summered through many 
which would bear fattening, and which made him the man to h 
Mr. Livingston’s prejudices against Mr. Clay at the point to y 
the latter had himself inflamed them. They were both, moreoy 
somewhat weather-beaten politicians who, whatever may have be 
their enthusiasm at earlier stages in their careers, were no longer 
swayed by that ardent devotion to particular political tenets or tha 
absorbing anxiety for their success which younger Statesmen—an¢ 
many even older than themselves, Gen. Jackson, by way of illustra 
tion,—could not shake off at will, but preferred in an equal de 
the enjoyment of public stations exempted, as far as practi 
from’ the cares and sacrifices often inseparable from a puncti 
discharge of the duties attached to them. Mr. Livingston was, t 
these circumstances, not a little solicitous to make his friendly repo 
for in that light Mr. March speaks of his communication to 
Webster, of the dispositions entertained by Gen. Jackson tow 
the latter as favorable as his views of the facts would justify. 
danger of exaggerating or misconstruing them, was, in no s 
degree, increased by the General’s habitual warmth of expressio 
such occasions.. He never allowed himself to be outdone in cou 
by friends or foes, and when he was pleased with the conduc 
either he said so without measuring ° his words for fear of 
too much. Contrasting Mr. Webster’s course with that of 
from whom he had a right to expect better things, he was doub 
highly gratified by it, spoke of it as he felt and would with p 
have taken any proper step to mark his high sense of it. But I 
tween the indulgence of such feelings and such expressions of the 
and an inclination to bring Mr. Webster into his Cabinet o: 
make him his trusted and confidential adviser there was a very 
difference. Against such steps there were, on his part, man 
superable objections, to only one of which I will here refer. 
Jackson was not a complaining man—I never knew one less x 
few men could have felt more keenly than he felt the extent to 
he had, in the estimation of many of his best friends, been n 
ignore if not to gainsay a portion of his early political ¢ 
fidelity to which he prided himself as he well might in view of t 
high character of the school in which he learned it. This had 
done by a few generalities in his Nullification Proclamation 
had their source in the original federal proclivity of its dra 
and which had met with sympathy from a similar and perha 
stronger bias on the part of the most. prominent member of hi Ca 
net and had been overlooked by himself through his anx 
respect to the substance of that memorable document and his h: 


° MS. VI, p. 160. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 707 


to matters of form. Nevertheless no word of murmur 
from him. He was satisfied that Mr. Livingston had meant 
shad done for the best and he was therefore silent but, with 
tion called to the point by a caution suggested in one of my 
; from London, he was determined, if it could be avoided, to 
o more from like sources, and “aoe , at the same time, not 
of the extent to which the ee referred to had been 
ed by the fact of Mr. Webster’s support of the Proclama- 
proposition in regard to the latter of the character spoken 
I am quite confident, have encountered at his hands a rejec- 
ally prompt and decided. 
yhy spend our time in conjecture and speculations upon a 
which received, at the moment, a solution so explicit and 
from the General himself? A more plausible proposition or 
artfully adapted to commit him to such an alliance as Mr. 
en that he was willing to form could not have been de- 
than that upon which he was consulted by Mr. Grundy at the 
is of the Panic Session. It presented temptations in the im- 
and effective aid offered to the Administration at a most 
] period of its fortunes; the proceeding contemplated by it was 
vely of a legislative character with which he had no official 
etion; it was to be performed in the regular course of their 
yy the members of the Senate, for whose acts he was in no 
sponsible; it would, if successful, have essentially crippled 
rer and influence of two gentlemen, Clay and Calhoun, whom _ 
ded as foremost and ablest among his enemies, and it might, 
ts consequences, have superseded the necessity of a new struggle 
bank from which he could, however favorably it might re- 
no individual advantage and which at his time of life, and 
ctual condition with reference to the esteem and respect of 
trymen, he had strong inducements to avoid if that avoid- 
olved no failure in duty on his part. And how did he dis- 
that proposition on the instant the construction that might 
upon his acquiescence, with regard to the very point we are 
¢, was brought to his notice! Let his direction to Mr. 
answer the question. His reply to a proposition, the ap- 
of which would, perhaps, have been regarded as no more than 
agement of the notion of his willingness to associate him- 
men whom and whose political principles he had all his life 
would only have been more emphatic if the invitation to do 
en more distinct and direct. 
ave and circumstantial form in which Mr. March has put 
Ss imputation and the sly manner in which it has been re- 
jon more futile pretences, by Mr. Everett, in his preface to 


‘z. 
oe 


708 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. ( 
Mr. Webster’s Works, constitute my apology for the notice I ha 
bestowed on the subject. ; 
Mr. March’s book is written with much ability and in a lively » 
agreeable style. He speaks with more fairness of Mr. Webst 
opponents than might have been expected from one so largely < 
voted to that gentleman and I may add so extravagantly his ¢ 
mirer. He does great injustice to the late Mr. Forsyth and mys 
in his assumption of an agency on our part in producing the rupt 
between Gen. Jackson and Mr. Calhoun, but I have been persuad 
by the general character of his work that on that point, and o1 
few others like it, he has said no more than he believed to be w 
founded, and in respect to the matter of which I have been led i 
a discussion above, he will probably live long enough to becor 
convinced of his error and will then, I doubt not, be ready te 
what he can to correct it. With the manner in which he ex 
himself in regard to my performance of the delicate and d 
duties of presiding officer of the Senate, at a critical and 
period in the history of that body, I would be quite unreas 
not to be more than satisfied. For Gen. Jackson he evidently 
sincere admiration and he does, upon the whole, fair justice to 
Benton which was not often done by gentlemen of his way of 
ing. The weakest part of his work is the judgment formed a 
pressed of the value of the services rendered by Mr. Webster t me 
Jackson and his Cabinet in the passage of what was familiarly In n¢ 
as the “ Force bill,” at the session of 1832-3. 4 
But for the efforts of Mr. Webster [is Mr. March’s dashing assumption] 
the friends who rallied under him, the administration would have fallen ii 
powerless and pitiable condition, an object of opprobrium to its friends an 
safe insult to its foes, 4 


Language so extravagant as this provides its own antidote, 
for the soberer positions and conclusions of other parts of the 
would shake the confidence of intelligent observers of the eve 
that period in the good sense of the author. A more fitting con 
tion of the sentence is to regard it as an illustration of the ¢ 
extremes to which warm hearted and enthusiastic young 
lable, in times of high excitement, to be carried by partisan 
What were the facts and circumstances in view of which this. 
ordinary declaration was hazarded? The close of the year 1 
been made memorable by the triumph of the popular cause in 
test for the Presidency scarcely less important in its conse 
than any recorded in our annals, and quite unequalled by an} 
power of the opposition it encountered and in the extent to 
the warm personal affection of the masses of the people for thei 
leader and candidate was influential in producing the result. That 
leader and candidate was Andrew Jackson, and arrayed ag 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 709 


j been found those distinguished partisan chiefs, eiiy. Calhoun 
d Webster, backed by the bank of the United States and aided by 
heir respective friends and parties and by all the discontented and 
us spirits which could be brought into the field by their com- 
influences. Not satisfied with that abortive struggle to prevent 
lection a still more furious effort had been made, in the ensuing 
to overthrow his administration by the same parties and fac- 
under the auspices of the same able leaders, and supported by 
me great monied institution, rendered far more reckless by the 
ate condition to which it had been already brought; an effort 
im which means were employed the character of which we are con- 
sidering in the review from which this is a digression, and of which 
is sufficient to say in this connection that they yet stand and it is to 
hoped will forever stand without a parallel in the recorded con- 
sof parties. No other man of that day, it will now be readily and 
erally confessed, or of many preceding years in our history, would 
e been able to stand against those combined assaults; yet he not 
sustained himself, his administration and the° cause of free 
ernment, but, strong in the devotion of a grateful people, was 
to strip those redoubtable leaders of most that was dangerous in 
influence they had so vigorously employed to destroy him, to 
ign their unscrupulous confederate, the bank, for the crimes of 
ch it had been guilty before the tribunal of public opinion and, 
its power, to bring that high reaching and thitherto most for- 
able institution to the feet of the Government humbled and com- 
tively impotent. 
‘was in view of these historical events that Mr. Webster’s biog- 
, after Jackson had descended to his grave and led by infatu- 
zeal for the promotion of his friend’s fortunes, would have 
ded the Country that, during the session of Congress that 
ened between these exhibitions of his unparalleled popularity 
power, the President had been thus dependant on the support 
ne of those leaders, and that one the least influential among them, 
that his administration and himself were only rescued from utter 
ation and debasement by the help of Daniel Webster! And 
y rescued? By the effects of a speech by that Senator in favor 
i measure which was called for by the whole Country, save South 
ma and a few politicians in other States—against which there 
0 substantial opposition—for the adoption of which Mr. Web- 
immediate constituents, almost to a man, were clamorous— 
he himself could not have opposed without encountering the 
d of political destruction—against the final passage of which 
single Senator was found vain-glorious enough to record his 


° MS. VI, p. 165. 


: : Rese +. ae 
710 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. * BP 


name *—which, beyond all doubt, derived its offence, fro 
acter and peculiar qualifications of the Chief Magistrate y 
charged with its execution and which, but for the energy it 
from that source, might have remained and, in the opinion < 
strongest minds in the Country, would have remained a dead 
on the statute-book. 
In representing Mr. Webster as leading the New England Se 
tors, on the occasion of the postponement of the election of 
mittees in the Senate, I wish not to be understood as attributing 
adoption of a course which I assume to have originated witl I 
to the exercise of any personal influence over their action or ej 
mainly, to a desire on their. side to advance his separate po 
interests. He never appeared to me to possess, in any cons 
degree, that kind of control over the action of the represe 
from his particular section which we have often seen exe 
leading men in other sections of our Country, even of m 
local or national distinction. This arose, in part, from a 
’ him of the qualities to which that sort of influence is co 
accorded, and still more, from traits unfavorable to its acq 
in the character of the New England people. I am, on the co 
persuaded that, to obtain their assent to oppose Mr. Clay 
Grundy motion, Mr. Webster found it necessary to satisfy 
those Senators in advance that if their overruling Mr. Clay 
proposition before them, in the success of which they well k 
feelings of the latter were enlisted, should cause a breac 
own party and lead to a union between them and the admini 
their own political prospects, as well as the material inte: 
their section of the Country, would stand a fair chance to 
proved by such a change in their party relations. A man 
than Mr. Webster’s tact and ability would not, I think, have e: 
enced much difficulty in doing this. With few exceptions they 
like himself, members of the old federal party, the greater | 
of whose lives had been spent in resisting the advance of di 
men and measures and who had encountered the difficull 
borne the sacrifices of such an undertaking with no greater 
in national politics, than the elevation to the Presidency 
Quincy Adams—which, from the peculiarities of the man ar 
the circumstances under which he was chosen, had proven li 
ter than a barren victory. I can well conceive that the 
then arrived. when men of their sober minds and practi 
“sense—from the beginning distinguishing characteristics 
race—had begun, at least, to feel that in addition to rest 
couraging, they had suffered enough in the long and equall 
less struggle to stem the current of Jackson’s popularity w 


1John Tyler, who alone voted against the “Force Bill,” Feb. 20, 


OBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 711 


d them a fresh and humiliating defeat to make them de- 
the possibility of elevating Mr. Clay to the Presidency, a 
ation, tho’ earnestly desired and zealously labored for, that 
all, for obvious reasons, never have quite satisfied them,— 

advantages of a monied institution so deeply and so 
involved in party politics and to confess to themselves 
iency of so soon undertaking another partisan campaign 
ends, to be supported by means certainly in the first in- 
reatly injurious to the Country, and with prospects of 
¢ those ends in no wise improved. It would have been in- 


greatly preferred a union with the victorious old Chief, 
upon’ an issue not incompatible with the principles they had 
ofessed and formed for the preservation of the Union—an 
ich they well knew to be dear to the hearts of the people. 
ef could never again be a candidate for the high office which 
filled and they might flatter themselves with the expectation 
ould fall to the lot of Mr. Webster, whose elevation to it 
least gratify their pride, to succeed to the place in his con- 
and regard which had long been occupied by one whose 
| pretensions it was now the first wish of their hearts to 


these agreeable arrangements, if they were projected, were 
y frustrated, as has been seen, and the materials out of 
y were to be constructed were restored to the uses to which 
been previously and long devoted. The day set apart for the 
tion of the standing committees of the Senate arrived. Mr. Clay 

| the New England Senators, Mr. Webster included, by whose 
had been defeated on Grundy’s motion, all restored to the 
f the party from which they had 3 meditated flight, 
f not willing, to submit to his leadership as before and as 
so to the policy and interests of the bank as if nothing in- 
nt with such fidelity had been attempted or purposed. Whilst, 
the keen encounter on Grundy’s motion was apparently 
to pass unnoticed and to be forgotten the events and de- 
of the summer had left no doubt on Mr. Clay’s mind of 
e of sinister and, in a party sense, disloyal designs on the 
. Webster, but why the further prosecution of them had 
oned or how frustrated he never knew until enlightened 
ars afterwards, as I have described. 


CHAPTER XLVI. 


The prevalence of public disorder and private distress, real or 
simulated, has always been treated in England as a legitimate sub 
ject of partisan agitation which, there as here, has rarely failed 
furnish occasion for misrepresentation and exaggeration in res 
both to théir origin and extent; but the deliberate and systema 
undertaking by a political party, by means placed at its dispo 
by a powerful monied institution having a common interest, to 
turb the business concerns of a whole country, with the ex 
purpose of converting the distress thereby occasioned into poli 
capital, was a partisan experiment of exclusively American o: 
There is reason to hope from the signal rebuke which the eri 
enterprise received from the American people that, as it was neve 
before attempted it will not be drawn into precedent anywhere. — 

° About to enter upon an undertaking at the same time so out- 
rageous and so hazardous, it became Mr, Clay, its conceded leade 
to be especially careful not to allow his confidence in the effica 
his means to render him inattentive to the manner of their ap 
tion. Upon that important point no man could have evinced g 
circumspection. He was too sagacious not to know that to give 1 
effect to the train which had been laid by the bank during the : 
and, thro’ its agency and whatever assistance Congress could a 
to cause such a panic in the public mind as would be suflicie 
accomplish their object was not and could not be made, in o 
tensive Country, the business of a day but would require agi 
not only violent but long continued. Especially did he reco 
the value of the latter requisite and adapt his course of proce 
with consummate skill, to the end of securing it. It was scz 
less desirable that the course of the House of Representatives sh 
in both respects, be made to harmonize with that of the Sena 
we were not long in discovering that the genius and will, which, 
the period of the balk in the first attempt to choose the standing 
mittees to the end of the session, bore absolute sway in the 
body, regulated also the action of the former, as far as the sts 
parties there would permit. The law of his nature demanded # 
it should be so and there were no longer, on the part of either 
principal associates, any adequate inducements to thwart his desigi 


°MS. VI, p. 170. 
712 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 7138 


Mr. McDuffie, the leader of the opposition in the House of Repre- 
atives, was an honest, obstinate man, in general actuated by pure 
d patriotic motives, but, on this occasion, his resentment against 
President and his eauermnde for the success of the bank, of which 
as from the beginning a devoted friend, were raised to such a 
teh that Mr. Clay had only to satisfy him fei the course he recom- 
ended was best calculated to counteract the General’s views and to 
ct that institution to secure his zealous co-operation. 
bilst Mr. Clay cannot be said to have displayed the best judg- 
ent in his general political course, his parliamentary tact and talent 
ve ever been regarded as of the highest order, if indeed, they were 
ot superior to those of any of his contemporaries. The established 
parliamentary rules and usages have in view of the dispatch of busi- 
ss to the greatest extent consistent with a full opportunity for the 
liberate consideration of the matters to be acted upon, and they 
ve to promote that end except when they are perverted for the 
accomplishment of sinister objects. The latter operation was now 
emed necessary for Mr. Clay’s purpose and it is curious to observe 
the perseverance and skill of his movements. The elements of panic 
and ruin already put in motion were to receive an overwhelming 
pulse from the rhetorical exaggerations and vehement denuncia- 
s to be fulminated from the two Houses of Congress, in the shape 
speeches, resolutions and reports. But to make sure of disturbing 
7 bitter waters to their very depths and thus to guard against their 
too rapid subsidence after these Congressional tempests, it was indis- 
Bible, as I have remarked, that the latter should be long con- 
aued and, to that end, that the propositions on which the supporters 
_ the bank based their proceedings should be such, in shape and sub- 
ce, as to enable them, maugre all efforts of their opponents in 
e contrary direction, to keep the discussion on foot during pleas- 
re, or as long as might be necessary to give their panic operations a 
horough trial. 
The feelings with which Mr. Clay had embarked in the struggle, 
ngthened as they had been by what took place in relation to the 
hoice of the standing committees of the Senate, induced him to de- 
d for himself the paternity of the leading proposition on which 
opposition and the bank should decide to “ts: their case before 
ountry. Proverbially generous in his dealings with his political 
mds he was, nevertheless, not free from selfishness in respect to 
hing that might affect his fame, an infirmity from which few 
men, if any, have been entirely exempt and which in him, as in 
ers, had grown stronger with increasing years. The “wear and 
ear” of his long and active political career and the hazardous strug- 
é in which he was now embarked combined with his advanced age 


I 


714 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


to admonish him that the present was his last chance of reac! hin e 
goal of his life long ambition. ys 
The power to remove the public deposits from the bank 
reserved to the Secretary of the Treasury by its charter, but it y 
made his duty, if he exercised that power, to report to the Co 
at its next session, the reasons on which he had acted. I 
were satisfactory to that body it became its duty to direct, 
where and upon what terms the public monies should be de 
and if it did not approve of the Secretary’s action it was witht 
power to direct their restoration to the bank. All this was 1 
plain as was also the course of proceeding on the part of Cong ng 
for the accomplishment of either end: to wit, to refer the Secrets 
reasons to the appropriate committee in o House, which 
have been that of Finance, in the Senate, and that of Ways and 
in the House of Representatives, and, upon their Reports, to p 
by law or by joint resolution, for such action in the matter as 
to the Country and to the bank should be held to require. Y 
doubt this course would have been pursued if it had comporte 
the views and interests of the bank and its supporters that the qu 
tion should be fairly acted on and disposed of in accordance ¥ 
parliamentary usages; but its adoption instead of promoting i 
sinister objects might, as they thought, defeat them. There 
the Senate a decided majority ready to condemn the act of t 
retary and to give to the bank all it asked for, whilst in the Hous 
which the members had just been elected, there was known to 
majority equally decided in favor of that act and equally 2 
to vote, on the second reading, for the rejection of any 
versing the Secretary’s dorision coal such a one be sent t 
by the Senate. If the usual course had been pursued — 
supporters of the bank, the friends of the Administratio 
of the ulterior objects of the former and understandin 
game they were playing to accomplish them, would ha’ 
nothing to do but to allow the bill reported in the Senate 
without opposition, as rapidly as the forms of legislatio 
permit, and to reject it in the House on its appearance th 
suddenly and effectually closing the door to Congressional a 
on which so great reliance was placed to shake the Coun 
by consequence, to break dewn the administration majorit 7 I 
popular branch of the Legislature. 
But there was another objection to the adoption of the usu 
of proceeding which would have been equally imperative 
Clay if its consideration at the moment had not been supe 
the other and pressing motive for departing from it to whic 
alluded, but which was, nevertheless, vigorously enforced at 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 715 


period of the session and which it will not be amiss to 
n this place. I have before spoken of the feelings with which 
made himself a party to the renewal of the conifer for the 
poration of the bank, a question supposed by many to have 
ed by the Presidential election of 1832; of his determina- 
4% whatever was done on that side which promised to create 
capital for its author should originate with himself, and, 
connection, of the then existing personal relations between 
er and himself. These resolutions he would doubtless have 

aed out, even if those relations had continued as cordial during 
ss and at the opening of the panic session as they seemed to 
the close of that which preceded it, but in a very different 
and spirit. The altered mood in which he again met his 
co-adjutor and the occurrences which led to it have been fully 
The mortification he suffered from being voted down on a 
for the success of which he had manifested great solicitude, 
very threshold of a session in which he expected to figure so 
y and so triumphantly, sank deep into his heart. He did not, 
time, as appears by his subsequent declarations, hesitate to 
jute Mr. Webster’s movements during the recess, to a contem- 
“defection from his party, to be eee teal for the moment and 

me more or less undisguised ° according to circumstances, 
notwithstanding his ignorance of the political dalliance 
‘Mr. Webster and Mr. Livingston, during that period, in 
: Gen. Jackson’s name was so freely used. A co-operation, 
igly hearty, was extended by Mr. Webster, after the selection 
mmittees, towards carrying into effect Mr. Clay’s plans, but 
ience of the former’s settled unfriendliness having been too 
ad recently too irritating to permit him ore again to confide 


~ 
Ww) 
a4 


= session to the last degree ienaiieatres and we re see how 
hly he carried out that determination. He did not attempt 
fere with the programme of his party according to which 
Vebster was to be placed at the head of the Finance committee 
committee was so constituted otherwise as to have on it a 
y who were Mr. Clay’s friends. To that committee the report 
Secretary of the Treasury, assigning his reasons for the re- 
f the deposits, should of right and, if the regular course of 
ive proceedings had not been broken up for the occasion, 
have been referred. The action of the Senate would, in that 

re been based on the report of that Committee, which would 
e, have been made by its chairman, Mr. Webster, and that 

n must thus have been invested with the position of leader- 


° MS. VI, p. 175. 


’ 


716 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. : a 
ship in respect to the great question of the session. Mr. Clay, hoy 
ever, interdicted the action of the Finance committee on that I 
ject, with a single exception, throughout the session. He once, afte 
a protracted parley, consented that the Secretary’s report should gx 
to that committee, but this permission was guarded and clogged D 
terms and Seniesa. humbly proposed by Mr. Webster himself 
to wit: that he would bring it back to the Senate the next morning 
accompanied by a report which he had some time before prepare 
and which, in lieu of bill or other form of relief, should conclud 
with a recommendation, to the Senate to pass one of Mr. Clay’s ow1 
resolutions, which had been long before that body, as the propel 
subject for its action, and, further, that the debate on Mr. Clay 
resolutions should be ocmen for thwith resumed. 
To secure both objects, time to create and increase panic by pre 
tracted discussion and the exclusion of Mr. Webster from that promi 
nence in the proceedings of the Senate to which he was entitled h 
his position as Chairman of the Finance committee, Mr. Clay moved 
to take up for consideration the Secretary’s Special Report on th 
subject of the removal of the deposits soon after it had been sent ii 
which was near the commencement of the session, and, after obtaining 
the information he desired from the Treasury Department, to wit: on 
the 26th December, he submitted two resolutions upon the subject for 
the separate action of the Senate—the first charging the Preside 
with having assumed and acted upon a power over the Treasury of 
the United States not granted to him by the Constitution and a 
dangerous to the Fie rties of the people, and the second declaring th 
the Secretary’s reasons for the removal of the deposits were “ uns: 
factory and insufficient ” and accompanied their presentation 
highly inflammatory but able and elaborate speech. By his firs’ 
lution he thus advanced a proposition which left the friends o 
Administration in the Senate, no option as to the manner in w 
it should be met but drove them to instant, earnest and persevere 
opposition to its adoption and at the same fae stimulated contentioi 
between the friends and enemies of the President througho 
land and aggravated the general distraction, the existence of 
was believed to be the most effectual support to the cause of the 
Furthermore, and this was its principal value, from its natur 
adroit presentation it enabled the majority to keep the subject um 
discussion as long as the agitation produced by that discussion 
seem to them to continue to be useful. It was, in fact, debated de 
in diem three months and a day, a duration unprecedented in this or, 
I believe, any Country-and that without the introduction, duri 
that erica of a solitary proposition which, if adopted, would have 


1See page 731. 


me 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 717 


arsed the action of the Secretary of the Treasury or have afforded 
s to the bank or have relieved the distress of any one. 

In the 28th of May, 1834, more than five months after the intro- 
tion of these resolutions, Mr. Clay presented, in the shape of a 
t resolution, the first definite proposition that was offered for 
ie reversal of the Secretary’s decision and the restoration of the 
osits to the bank of the United States.1 His plan for extending 
aggravating the panic, for which the bank had laid the founda- 
| in the recess and contributed its aid through the winter by 
ms of inflammatory appeals to the passions and the fears of the 
mmunity, was therefore, so far as it afforded ample opportunity 
that experiment, eminently successful. 

_ For obvious reasons the House of Representatives would have been 
ade the principal theater of these operations but for the circum- 
ce that the three leading agitators were members of the Senate 
further that whilst the supporters of the bank outnumbered the 


‘decided majority in the House—a majority to be broken down 
0’ the influence of the bank and the arts and devices of its advo- 
s before any movement promising success could be made in its 


sonable to suppose were the results of Mr. Clay’s advice suc- 
ed in effecting the same object that was so successfully accom- 
plished in the Senate to an extent beyond what could have been 
mticipated. By a motion which the friends of the administration, 
hro’ inadvertence, suffered to pass, the report of the Secretary of 


on. The ground thus lost thro’ the inattention of the majority 
only be regained by a reconsideration, the motion for which 
open to debate and was accordingly long debated. When the 
position for reconsideration was at length brought to a vote and 
pted thro’ the instrumentality of the previous question and a 
m was made to refer the report to the Committee of Ways and 
S, a new obstacle was interposed by Mr. McDuffie in the shape 
motion to amend the motion for a reference, by adding instruc- 
to the Committee to report a resolution directing the restora- 
of the deposits to the bank. 
‘he first of these resolutions was the same as that agreed to March 28, 1834, 


acterizing the reasons of the Secretary of the Treasury for removing the deposits 
Salisfactory and insufficient.” See Register of Debates, X, Pt. I, 1187 and X, Pt. 
We 


718 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


By the use of parliamentary arts like those I have describ it 
whole subject was kept under discussion in the House of F 
sentatives for the space of months upon preliminary 
tions before the secretary’s “ reasons” were referred to the Co 
tee of Ways and Means, where they should have been sent in th 
first instance. Upon each of these questions, thro’ the latitude i 
debate which crept into the proceedings of that body, panic speeche 
utterly unrestricted in their scope or character were held to be ix 
order. 4 
Having thus obtained ample security against a speedy dispositio 
of the subject by either house Mr. Clay entered on the execution ¢ 
the task he had assumed—that of bringing Congressional agi 
to the aid of the bank and its outdoor partisans in their effo 
create a panic in the public mind of sufficient extent and inte: 
to effect the subjection of every adverse branch of the Gove 
to the dictation and control of that institution. This aud 
‘design he hoped to accomplish thro’ the instrumentality of in 
ary speeches and vindictive resolutions emanating from thi 
Houses to be reproduced at public meetings and in State Le 
tures, aimed to aggravate whatever embarrassments in the bu 
concerns of the Country the bank had succeeded in ecausin, 
exaggerating their extent, and to exasperate the public feeling a1 
mislead the public mind into the belief that these evils, altho’ 
fact intentionally and causelessly created, so far as they exis 
all, by the bank and its supporters, had arisen from the remo} 
the deposits; aimed also to uproot the confidence of the comm 
as well in the stability of the institutions which the State 
established as in their capacity to afford the necessary pect 
facilities to men of business, to shake its faith in monied estal 
ments of every description,° in individual resources, in all the 
ness pursuits of men which had thitherto afforded support or 
and in every source of relief or security against the ruin w 
was asserted and insisted, threatened, nay actually overwhe 
material interests of the whole Country, other than that 
by the bank of the United States—an institution, as subseq 
velopments have demonstrated, then already tottering to its 

A leader better fitted for the conduct of such an enterpri: 
not have been found in this or, perhaps, in any Country. 
the vigor of his intellect nor his reasoning powers were s 
probably they were inferior to thuse of Mr. Webster; but the 
not even the chief qualifications for the post. All ihe “aid and co 
fort” to be derived from these sources had been contributed in f 


° MS. VI, p. 180. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 719 


by Webster in the veto-message campaign, but without suc- 
the contest in which Mr. Clay was embarked clear and cool 
t, save to confuse and silence the defences of the adminis- 
against the unjust assaults that were to be heaped upon it, 
be out of place. His reliance was to be an agency at war with 
d reason—that of panic. To create this—of violence ade- 
the occasion and to the purposes to which it was to be ap- 

a Country so extensive and withal so thriving as ours, 
undertaking of which the difficulties would have discouraged 

laded ordinary minds, but with Mr. Clay and with many of 
federates not less resolute, backed as they were by a money- 
‘utterly unscrupulous as to the means it employed, no efforts 
mn its cause were thought too difficult or desperate in that 
f their fortunes. Their united exertions were therefore un- 
ly employed, as I have said, day in and day out, for the de- 
n of the confidence of the community in public and private 
the success of business pursuits of every description— 
vency of all banks and monied establishments in any way 
ted with business transactions, except only the bank of the 
sd States and such State banks as acknowledged fealty to that 
m and in spreading the belief, that the former, whether cor- 
private, would be speedily compelled to suspend payment ; 
suading the Manufacturers that they would be obliged to stop 
ills—their employees that they would be discharged—those 
1 in commerce that their ships were destined to rot at the 
s—the officers and sailors that they would be turned adrift— 
mers, planters, founders, miners, and producers of every de- 
that the products of their labor would be without a mar- 
contractors and builders that the demand for houses would 
the numerous workmen dependent upon them and the labor- 
ry department of industry that all would soon be thrown out 
yment—that there would be neither call for their services 
rency of sufficient value to reward them, if they found any 
inless the public deposits were restored to the vaults of the 


ght the public mind from its propriety, to stultify it so far 
e these monstrous assumptions credible was an undertak- 
cess of which could not be promoted by appeals however 
t or plausible to men’s judgments. Not arguments nor facts 
-faced hyperbole and incendiary harangue addressed to the 
issions of the heart with the grossest misrepresentations in 
the acts of the Government, the actual condition of the 
nd the causes of the limited distress that existed and reck- 
s on those whose influence the supporters of the bank 


720 AMERICAN HISTORICAL: ASSOCIATION. 


sought to subvert—these were the appropriate weapons for the occa 
sion and they were wielded to an extent which has secured to it a 
enduring and unenviable notoriety. ‘ 
That Mr. Clay should have consented to become the principal ane 
most active leader of those who encouraged and sustained the bank i 
its crusade not only against the best interests of the Country bu 
against the vital principle of the Government was a source of dee 
regret to his earliest and best friends. What could have been mot 
humiliating to himself or painful to those who were conversant wit 
the bright opening of his career than the aspect in which he presen: te 
himself for three months of this memorable session. Even befoi 
attaining the period of manhood the eloquent advocate of liber: 
principles and for many proud years of his prime of life the w 
flinching and successful supporter of the pure and self-denyi 
doctrines of the old Republican party, now, when his temples we 
silvered by age, his imposing figure was daily recognized in his we 
known place in the Senate Chamber and his melodious voice hea 
in forced apologies for, or unfounded justifications of the conduet 
of the bank and in indiscriminate denunciations of the Governmel 
in heralding for the most part fallacious and always grossly exag; | 
rated reports of the prevalence of distress in the Country, in urgi 
the preposterous conclusion—known at the moment and long si 
conceded by all intelligent minds to be such—that those distres 
were occasioned by the removal of the deposits and in wailing proph- 
ecies of woe to every public and private interest unless those depos ; 
were restored, intended as key-notes to his followers im every cornet 
of the land. No man who reads these pages will, I am confide ; 
believe that I feel any satisfaction in recording the details of th 
the most exceptionable proceedings of Mr. Clay’s life. Yet the tri 
of history requires me to say, painful as it is to do so, that he not only 
sought or at least voluntarily assumed the lead in all of them, bu' 
that he suffered no one of his associates to go beyond him in” 
violence, in acts and words, with which his ends were pursued. 
Whilst Mr. Clay and his followers in both Houses were app yin 
all their energies to carry into effect the part allotted to thei 
the general programme their political friends and the bank ax 
employees and dependents were no less actively engaged in su 
ing them with materials for agitation in the shape of mem 
from all parts of the country and all classes of people, alth 
much alike in form and substance as to shew that they were 
to order, describing, in terms which echoed Congressional lam 
tions, the fulfilment of Congressional predictions of the general St 
fering and ruin in consequence of the removal of the deposits, an 
pointing to their restoration to the vaults of the bank of the Use 
and, in some few cases, referring also to an extension of the charte 


‘i AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 2A 


of that institution as the only panacea for the disorders that per- 
yvaded the body-politic. 

_ ° These “distress memorials” (as they came to be called) pre- 
‘sented the first phase of the external aid afforded to the alarmists 
im Congress. What I have to say of their character and contents 
must of necessity be briefly said as the general subject undér cor- 
‘sideration—that of the proceedings of the panic session—has already 
“grown largely on my hands. The ball was opened, after the petition 
‘of the bank, which was little more than a prayer for general relief, 
by a memorial from a number of the principal State banks doing 
‘pusiness in the city of Philadelphia. It was the boast of the bank 
of the United States and its supporters that the State banks could 
“not be kept on foot, in a period of commercial embarrassment, with- 
‘out her aid and that she had it in her power, on such occasions, to 
‘compel them to suspend specie payments by merely withholding her 
assistance from them. That this was not so was fully proven by 
‘results with which we are all familiar but it is not as clear that 
all of the State institutions were sensible of their real ability to take 
care of themselves. Whatever may have been the influences by 
which the State banks in Philadelphia were moved—whether by 
dread of the power of the National bank or by a common sympathy— 
it so happened that those banks, to the number of nine, under their 
sorporate seals and the signatures of their respective Presidents, 
immediately came forward to sustain that institution and pre- 
“sented to Congress a joint memorial asking that body to direct a 
“yestoration of the deposits to its vaults. Their communication was 
presented on the day of December 1833+ and was ordered to 
| be spread upon the journal, a mark of respect conceded to that docu- 
/ment and to the memorial of the bank of the United States, but 
not to any other. It was selected not only as an imposing and sat- 
isfactory opening representation for the bank but obviously to 
serve as a model for those which were to follow. It is therefore en- 
“titled to special notice and what is here said of its contents will 
generally apply to those that proceeded from different sources. It 
| dwelt upon the importance of a well regulated currency—afiirmed 
“that the nation had enjoyed such a currency and a moneyed system 
adequate to its wants for the preceding ten years thro’ the instru- 
mentality of the existing national bank, which in their opinion had 
po superior in the world—it charged that that system, which had 
been thus perfect on the first of October preceding, and the signal 
prosperity it had produced had undergone a sudden and a powerful 


| °Ms. Book VII, p. 1. ; 
ihe memorial, dated Dec. 9, was presented Dec. 18, 1833. It is printed in the De- 


127483 °—vo1 2-—20—— 46 


722 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.  _ 


change—that “the moneyed operations of our commercial cities 
were at a stand, the commerce between the States was again labor 
under a tax, which must continue increasing at a loss on all 
exchanges—that the circulating medium already begun to arrang 
itself on a scale of depreciation, while, in the train of these evils and 
not far~behind them, might be apprehended a general abandonment 
of specie payments—that, happily for the Country, the remedy for 
this distressing state of things was as evident as the cause of it- 
that they did not hesitate to express their belief that, as the removal 
of the deposits of the U. States from the bank of the U. S. was the 
real cause of the distress, so the restoration of them to that insti- 
tution would be the effectual remedy.” They therefore prayed that 
such restoration should be directed by Congress. 

This memorial was followed on January 3d by one from the Boa rd 
of Trade of the same city, which, having been drawn up at a some- 
what more advanced stage of the panic, went far beyond its proto 
type in its gloomy description of the distress and ruin which hil d 
within a few weeks taken the place of previous prosperity and ease 
in the pecuniary affairs of the Country, affirming more specifica. 
that the disastrous change was owing to the fact that the bank 
the U. S. had been deprived of the means she before possessed 
support the currency and to aid men of business by the removal 
the Government deposits without enabling the deposit banks » b 
supply her place, negativing in explicit terms the idea that the bank 
had; either for her own protection or any other motive, taken ar 
steps by which the prevailing embarrassments had been produced an¢ 
insisting that they were entirely chargeable to the acts of the Goy- 
ernment, and would be all remedied by the restoration of the deposits 

The statements set forth in these memorials, the preposterous 
falsity of which will be hereafter demonstrated, were founded or 
those of the bank which, after its defeat in the last canvass 
after it had resolved upon the reckless enterprise in which it 
now engaged, was entirely unscrupulous in the means it emplo 
and were adopted by the President and directors of the State be 
in Philadelphia with unhesitating and blind confidence in the 
tives and in the infallibility of Mr. Biddle. The same influence 
which these were called into existence produced similar petit 
from all quarters of the Country. They were generally prese 
to the Senate by members friendly to the objects of the petitio 
and sometimes by those opposed who had been selected with a kn 
with the presentation of one or more of these petitions and a spe 
from the Senator presenting (which was never omitted) in w 
portion and not infrequently the whole of each day was oceup 
edge of their views by the signers for special reasons. The e 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 723 


e described the character of the petitioners, their original political 
iations, the prostration of their business and the distress pre- 
Jing among them, and depicted in most sombre colors the wicked 
acts by which such widespread ruin had been produced in a Country 
gut recently highly ficurishing. This was followed by replies to 
he allegations of facts in the speech and a running debate in which 
ny Senators participated, accusatory on the side of the petitions 
rally exciting and often very violent. The inflammatory char- 
of these Senatorial altercations was continually aggravated 
the reading of private letters, the promulgation on the floor of 
Senate, of startling reports importing the confirmation of the 
ements of the memorials, and of the proceedings of partisan 
meetings denouncing the administration in bitterest terms as the 
uthor of the distress alleged—the greater portion of which had no 
tence outside of those proceedings and memorials and for no 
art of which was it justly responsible. 

These allegations charges and invectives naturally drew out replies 
om Senators friendly to the Administration, some of whom repre- 
ted States to which those high-wrought descriptions applied, and 
o believed them to be in the main groundless. Altho’ these re- 
plies in one sense promoted the views of the opposition by pro- 
longing the discussion and by° giving additional interest to the 
ect, they were nevertheless unavoidable, as it was not in the 
ure of such men to listen in silence to representations which 
hey knew to be, in a very great degree, false and in all respects 
rossly exaggerated, especially when they were made the pretext of 
unciations of an administration which they honestly believed 
be deserving of the confidence of the nation. These replies were 
made without cost to their authors, which men less firm than the 
e spirits by whom the administration was defended in that the 
ment of its utmost need might have felt willing to avoid. To 
ion the existence of the distress described in those memorials, 
rivate letters or irresponsible newspaper paragraphs, or even to 
ny its prevalence to the extent alleged, exposed the Senators who 
ured so far to an immediate storm of impetuous railing from 
or of scowling sarcasm from Webster or to be pounced upon 
Poindexter, who watched with the alertness of a cat for his 
ortunity. 

ost prominent among the friends of the administration who 
oted themselves with all their hearts and powers to the support 
the President in this fierce struggle stood Forsyth of Georgia, 
iton of Missouri, Wright of New York, Bedford Brown, of North 
olina, Roane of Virginia, Wilkins of Pennsylvania, Grundy of 


hor 


°MS, VII, p. 5, 


724 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


Tennessee, Shepley of Maine, and Kane of Illinois, with occasion al 
assistance from King of Alabama, a gentleman of colder tempera- 
ment but who cherished and manfully asserted, whenever he was 
called out, just and honest views. 

An incident illustrating the absorbing excitement of those scenes 
recurs to my memory as I write. Feeling quite unwell on the morn- 
ing of one of those troublous days I thought it advisable to remain at 
home, but as the Senate could not be organised in my absence (under 
the rules as they then stood) I decided to wrap myself up warmly to 
go to the Capitol, place some one of the Senators in the chair and re 
turn to meet a physician whom I directed to be called and to betake 
myself to my bed. Adding a heavy cloak to my ordinary out-door 
apparel and a scarf around my neck I drove to the capitol and took 
the chair without parting with either and with the determination IT 
have described. As soon as the reading of the Journal was completed 
a distress memorial was presented upon which and upon the remarks 
of the Senator presenting it a fiery debate sprang up in which m 7 
friend Forsyth bore a principal part and which lasted without imter- 
mission until five o’clock, the hour of adjournment. As the excite- 
ment increased I gradually threw aside my surplus coverings and 
mained in the chair until the Senate adjourned, when, on leaving the 
chamber, I invited Forsyth, with whose bearing on the occasion I 
had been especially pleased, and two other friends to take seats in 
my carriage and to dine with me and it was not until we arrived 
my house and noticed the astonishment of my servant, who met n 
with an explanation from the doctor of his inability to wait lon 
for me, that I recalled the resolutions of the morning and the instru 
tions I had left with him. 

There was, however, no degree of excitement in the two House 
that could save the cause of the bank from the damaging effects 
the examinations and discussions which stamped the indelible br 
of imposture on the memorials of the Philadelphia city banks and 
of its Board of Trade, and the distrust thus produced naturally 
tended to many subsequent memorials, embracing nearly all co 
structed on the same basis. The justice of this condemnation was 
fully demonstrated by the facts disclosed and by their array i 
juxtaposition with the pretences set up, as was done in counter, 
memorials which sprung spontaneously from the bosom of the com- 
munity under the influence of a rapidly spreading conviction 
the falsity of the clamor that had been raised on the subject of the 
removal of the deposits. These, altho’ for obvious reasons not So 
numerous as the bank petitions, were yet very imposing in thei 
character and construction. Disinterested men of clear heads 
honest hearts, influenced frequently by no other interest in the ques 


ad 


i AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 725 


ion than by love of truth and hatred of imposition, devoted them- 
lves to their preparation, exposed the absurd propositions which 
id been dogmatically advanced in the Philadelphia memorials to 
the contempt of unprejudiced and sensible minds, and their posi- 
s were enforced with great ability and effect by the supporters 
public cause on the floor of the Senate. 
these investigations and discussions the following case was 
out against the bank-memorialists: 
order for the removal of the deposits, tho’ made in September, 
not take effect until the first of October and applied only to the 
ing revenue, leaving the balance oi the public money which 
uld on that day be in the bank of the United States to be expended 
D the public service and drawn out in the way which had been before 
ursued. The memorial of the State banks in Philadelphia was 
presented to Congress on the 30% December and that of the Board 
of Trade on the 3d January following; thus, assuming that only a 
few.days elapsed between their preparation and approval by the 
ive Boards and their presentation to Congress, leaving some 
en weeks during which the bank had been deprived of the accruing 
evenue when those documents were so presented. The receipts by 
Government, during the intervening period, were ascertained 


a> 


frot m official sources to have amounted to —————— and the bank 
iad in its vaults when the order for the removal took effect a bal- 
ance of public money amounting to —————— which remained until 


wn out in the regular course of the public service. It was by the 
of withholding from the bank the use of the first mentioned sum, 
ho’ accompanied by the continuance of a much larger deposit, and 
by ' placing the moneys thus withheld in State institutions—one of 
hem in the same city—to be used in the same way, that these doubt- 
ess worthy but certainly very gullible memorialists were made to 

lieve, or at least to charge that their Government had, in the space 
of E some ten weeks, produced the wide spread ruin they pathetically 
jepicted, reaching to the prostration, if not destruction of the cur- 
ency and moneyed system of a great nation, the superior of which 
n their opinion the world had never seen ; had brought the moneyed 
srations of our commercial cities toa stand; had subjected the 
erce between the States to a tax, which must continually in- 
srease, at a loss on all its exchanges and our circulating medium 
0 7 point of depreciation, and, in the train of these evils, had 

mished good ground for fearing a suspension of specie payments. 
lo better illustration could be asked of the reckless audacity of these 
fatements than the necessity they imposed of the preliminary as- 
st amption that an interference with the accustomed receipts of the 


1September 26, 1833. 


¥ 


726 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 


bank to so slight an amount could have so far crippled an institutic 
which boasted, in official communications, that its annual moneye 
operations amounted to some three hundred and forty millions. 

The leaders of the bank party, (for to that appellation the o: 
sition had fully entitled themselves) at length became sensible 
the pretence, with which they had commenced the campaign, 
detected by the people and that they were rapidly losing gro 
by attempting to maintain the imposture. Accordingly they yie 
to the necessity of a change of position in the face of the enemy— 
an always dangerous movement and which proved disastrous i 
their case. Abandoning the ground taken in their memorials, tha 
the pecuniary embarrassment and distress which they alleged te 
prevail in the Country were the direct consequences of the remoy 
of the deposits, it was now charged that they had been caused 
the destruction of the confidence of the community in the b 
generally and in all pecuniary engagements brought about by 
removal of the deposits and by the acts of the President and 
retary of the Treasury in connection with that measure. ." 
amendment of the indictment was scouted by the friends ° 
administration as an after-thought, which had not occurred to 
bank managers when the removal of the deposits was selecte 
the subject for agitation, nor to the memorialists or their ad 
and which was now acted upon by the latter after being 4 
from their first position. In this conclusion the Country coine 
and the ground now taken soon came to be regarded as but 
less unfounded pretence substituted for one already refuted, a 
for the retreat from an unsuccessful attempt to practice a 
imposition upon the community. Few unprejudiced minds 
to penetrate the artifice, regarding it as manifest on the face 
memorials, with which they justly identified the bank, tha 
would not have been constructed as they were if the view after 
taken had been the one originally intended. That a discree 
timely effort on the part of the President to withhold the rey 
necessary to the public service from a bank already diseredi 
the extent to which it had involved itself in party polities 
which was at the moment notoriously pursuing a lawless and 
less course in many respects, would shock and demoralize an iI 
ligent people, a vast majority of whom believed him to be 
and disinterested, however some of them might differ from i 
to the wisdom of particular measures, so far as to cause them t 
all confidence in themselves, in the institutions they had create 
in their government, was an assumption dishonoring their cha 
and which they did not, in the sequel fail to rebuke and dispr 


° MS, VII, p. 10. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. (ORR 


emorials of the same general character, differing only by urging, 
ording to the corrected programme, the destruction of confidence 
as the cause of the evils under which the Country was said to be 
suffering, continued to pour in, day after day, until the number of 
the signers to them exceeded one hundred thousand as declared when 
, count was made by the Secretary of the Senate at the instance of 
fr. Clay. 
_ A new feature was, after a while, added to the panic machinery 
of the bank and its supporters; that of large “ distress committees ” 
a appointed to carry the memorials to Washington and commissioned 
to add their personal assurances of the existence and extent of the 
distress. These committees thronged the galleries of the two Houses 
of Congress and the avenues to the Capitol, proclaiming everywhere 
the ruin of the country; they visited the President, Sse to him 
their relation of public grievances and in some instances misrepre- 
sented his replies to an extent that led him to require that their 
further communications to him should be in writing. They fulfilled 
their allotted task of adding to the prevailing excitement by start- 
ling descriptions of the condition of the people given to their rep- 
resentatives and on their return laboring to irritate the constituent 
body by exaggerated pictures of the condition of affairs at Wash- 
ington, of which the obstinacy of the President was a prominent 
and invariable feature. 
_ A memorial from the Building Mechanics of the city of Phila- 
delphia, said to have been adopted at a meeting of 3,000 persons, 
composed, as Mr. Webster said, of carpenters, masons, bricklayers, 
ainters, and glaziers, lime burners, plasterers, alee merchants, 
e., &¢., was carried to Washington = a committee of thirty of the 
Bari lists. This committee was admitted to the Senate Chamber 
id were ranged around the seats of the Senator whilst that gentle- 
an presented their memorial, in doing which, he pointed to them 
nd spoke in his most ican vein of theis P peerbility and use- 
ness and invited the Senators to converse with them and to hear, 
om their own lips, their “ fearful story.” 
The flood of memorials in favor of the bank naturally soon pro- 
iced a large number of remonstrances from those who thought the 
ernment had done right, against the interference of Congress in 
e matter. Each document, whether denunciatory of the act of the 
resident, or of the conduct of the bank, was ushered in by a sepa- 
fe speech, which provoked replies and these, in turn, rejoinders, 
to the exclusion of all other business, until the two Houses presented 
) a Spectacle, which would not have been endured in any other state 
| Of public feeling than that into which it had been lashed by the 
‘practices of which I have given a faint outline. 


728 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


From Dec. 26th, 1833, to June 5, 1834, when the vote was taken 
on Mr. Clay’s joint resolution, the state of the question in regard to 
the removal of the deposits and the recharter of the bank, with a 
single and limited exception, had remained substantially unchanged. 
Mr. Webster had, from the beginning, winced severely under his ex- 
clusion from all direct control of, or other than subordinate agency 
in the course of proceedings adopted by Mr. Clay. He took occasion, 
at an early day, to say, during the formal proceedings of the morn- 
ing, that the Secretary’s reasons for the removal] of the deposits ought 
to have been referred to the Finance Committee, of which he was 
chairman, that he did not like to interfere with the discussion, a 
thing he was, for well understood reasons, very careful not to attempt, 
but that he would make a motion to that effect, when the prese at 
discussion was closed, and he was constantly on the lookout for an 
eccasion when that could be done with the least danger of giving 
offense to Mr. Clay. That which he embraced, sprung out of cir- 
cumstances in which I took part, and as to the propriety of referring 
to which, I have had a good deal of hesitation. The true charactei 
and unprecedentedly equable tenor of the close relations that existed 
between Silas Wright and myself, from the beginning to the end o1 
our acquaintance, were, in their day, appreciated, but not thoroughly 
understood even by our mutual friends. There never was a single 
occasion, in all the troublesome and trying political scenes thro 
which we passed, side by side, that disturbed, with even a moment: 
ruffle, the calm confidence of my feelings towards him or that. i 
ore me with apprehension of any interruption or diminution o: 01 
the respect and esteem which he, in turn uniformly manifested to 
wards me. My deference to his judgment in many things and es 
pecially in such as had political relations, was all but absolute, an 
never have I been tempted for a moment to regard myself as superic 
to him, in any good quality of the head or heart; indeed I believe h 
had no superior in the sincerity, simplicity, and strength of his publi 
and private virtues, and in that important attribute of a truly ad 
able statesman, perfect disinterestedness—he stood above any m 
ever knew. I have often remarked to my friends, that in all ou 
long and confidential intercourse, embracing consultations in almos 
every gradation of his career, it never appeared to me that the 
tion, how a contemplated political step might affect the individut 
interests of Silas Wright, had occupied his mind for a moment. 

It cost him much to suppress at the time the facts I am shoul t 
mention, and at any period of his after life he would have spok 
of them, if he could have obtained my consent to his doing so. 

The panic session had already lasted some months without h 
taking a part in its proceedings, in any degree proportioned t 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 729- 


s capacities, and also without, as it was thought, a full and suffi- 
sntly authoritative exposé, on the floor of either House, of the 
aws and ultimate intentions of the administration, in respect to 
the important matters under discussion. The disadvantages re- 
ing from this ° state of things was felt by some of our most dis- 
eet friends, and by none more than Mr. Wright himself. I often 
ght to remedy the evil, by hints to him, indicative of a desire 
at he should say in a speech on the floor of the Senate, what he 
kmew our sentiments to be, but without success, and was in the end 
driven, by the pressure of the emergency, to call at his lodgings 
and to have a talk with him, of which the following was the sub- 
stance: 
“Mr. Wright!” 
“Mr, Van Buren!” [a response, the formality of which, was probably pro- 
duced, by an unusual earnestness in my manner] “I am about to talk to 
you in a way in which I would not venture to speak to any other friend 
“I have in the world, because I could not feel sufficiently confident that it 
would be received in the right spirit.” 

“Say on.” 

“Are you aware that you have not, since you have been in the Senate, 
Tealized the anticipations of your friends?” 
“Tam, but I am also aware that the fault does not rest on me.” 

“On whom then?” 
“On my friends, for cherishing expectations which are not authorized by 
any thing I have ever done.” 
7 “That is a point in respect to which all your friends differ from you. I, 
for one, know that in thinking so, you do yourself injustice. Having reference 
to a clear and strong intellect, a sound judgment, reasoning powers of the 
highest order, and perfect sincerity, integrity and disinterestedness in your 
purposes, the proper qualities for the leader of such an administration as the 
esent, you have not your superior in the Senate. That is the opinion of all 
ur friends, and you are yourself only prevented from taking the position its 
general truth assigns to you, by an excess of modesty, the existence of which 
we all deplore.” 
“The partiality you have just evinced is a fair sample of that by which 
, my friends have been led into error.” 
“You must allow us to judge of that. The President, as well as myself, 
feels that his real views have not, thus far, been sufficiently developed on the 
or of either House of Congress and that the misrepresentations of his op- 
ments derive their greatest facilities from that source. We are desirous 
at a fuller and more authoritative exposition of them should be made at 
e earliest practicable moment, and that you should make it. The presenta- 
on of the proceedings of the New York Legislature upon the principal subjoet 
nder consideration, which on account of their source, and of ours being the 
rst legislative body that has come to his aid, will present a suitable occasion 
r such exposition, and I come, at his instance, to entreat you to do him that 
yor. Are you willing to make it, if I inform you of what the President 
res to have said?” 


° MS. VII, p. 15. 


730 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. _ 


“The administration has several friends in the Senate more competent 
the task than myself.” 


“We do not think so, and even if we did, we would for other reasons, p. 
that what is said should come from you.” i 

“You wish to impose upon me a responsibility I would prefer to avoid 
may misunderstand you and thus commit you against your will. There ar 
those who understand the subject better and would be less likely to do so 
[He paused a moment.] i 

“Tf I reduce all we want to have said to writing, will you then undertake t 
say it?” 

“Write and let me see it.” , 

“T will do it this very night and you shall have it early in the morning.” 


My promise was promptly performed and I received by the serv 
ant who carried the package a verbal answer, that the matter wo 1 
be attended to. Shortly thereafter, I think the next day, he pre 
sented the New York resolutions ad accompanied them by obse va 
tions, which with the caution and fidelity he observed in all thi ng 
were, with the addition of a few formal expressions, in substance a 
Shee a verbal recapitulation of the brief I had sent him. ‘he: 
may be found in the Congressional Globe for the 23d Congress, 
136. He had not spoken ten minutes before Mr. Webster exchan 
his own, for a vacant chair near him and scarcely took his eyes fro 
him until he finished. Other prominent Senators of whom Mr. 
was one, also gathered round him and bestowed very unusual a 
tion upon what fell from him. Webster replied instantly and 
notice, at the close of his remarks, that he would call for farther con 
Silerstion of the New York resolutions on the morrow; which | 
did, and thereupon made another vigorous effort in answer to ] 
Wright’s speech. He commenced his speech, ona enough, w 
the following remarks: 


The observations [he said] of the gentleman from New York, he consi 
as full of the most portentous import. He considered the declarations > 
had been made by him as conveying the settled purpose of the adminis 
on the great questions which now agitated the public mind. 

* Mr. Wright rose to explain “he had,” he said, “ given his opi 
as an individual and he had no authority to express the views of 
administration.” 

Mr. Webster said “he perfectly well understood all the g 
man’s disclaimers and demurrers, but it was from the station’ 
gentleman and from his relations, that he had adopted th 
clusion that every word spoken by the gentleman had been wel 
sidered, and the subject of deliberation with himself and othe 

He appreciated at its true value the effect which Mr. W 
speech, on so imposing a subject as were the proceedings of the 
York legislature, was calculated to produce, in raising the ea 
the government in the estimation of the people and his ambition W 


(4 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 731 


highly excited to elevate equally that of the bank and its political 
allies. Under the influence of such feelings, he addressed the Senate 
‘on two days in succession and for several hours of each, and as the 
newspapers truly reported, with unusual animation and as I felt at 
the time, with unusual ability even for him. 
_ But the reader would make a great mistake in assuming that Mr. 
Webster regarded the obvious effectiveness of the proceedings of 
the New York Legislature and of Mr. Wright’s speech, with un- 
mitigated regret. On the contrary, though he stood ready to do 
what he could to render them inoperative, he yet looked upon their 
occurrence as essentially facilitating the steps he was constantly 
meditating to relieve himself and the committee of which he was 
chairman, from Mr. Clay’s interdict against the introduction, by 
them of a single substantive measure professedly designed to afford 
the country relief from the evils under which they all pretended to 
believe it was suffering, because of the removal of the deposits. 
~ To that end, Mr. Webster suggested, in open Senate, to Mr. Clay 
and Mr. Poindexter, the latter of whom had already introduced 
"some resolutions upon the subject, the propriety of referring the 
New York resolutions to the Committee of Finance, with the reasons _ 
of the Secretary of the Treasury for removing the deposits. To 
this course Mr. Clay professed to have no objection, provided it did 
not interrupt ° the debate on his resolutions, but soon exhibited un- 
'mistakable signs of opposition to it. “The Committee,” he said, 
“had the President’s message before them, and there was nothing 
, that prevented them from acting upon that.” Mr. Webster replied, 
hat the message was not the Secretary’s reasons” but seeing in 
hat fell from Mr. Clay, an indication of the probable fate of his 
otion, he added, that if the Secretary’s reasons were allowed to 
to the Committee, the latter would not require to have possession 
them for more than a day, and concluded with the remark that 
if the paper was to go to the Committee, it was: time it was there.” 
He finally promised to report the next morning, if the Senate would 
tefer the Secretary’s reasons to the Committee. 
‘Mr. Clay moved to lay the subject upon the table, and it was so 
sposed of. 
| The next day Mr. Webster renewed his motion in a form to which 
‘Mr. Clay could not and did not object—that was to refer the Secre- 
tary’s reasons with Ur. Clay’s second resolution to the Committee on 
ance, under a promise to the Senate that he would report them 
k the next morning, and beyond all doubt under a promise to Mr. 
, hegotiated through Poindexter, that a recommendation in 
vor of the passage of Mr. Clay’s second resolution, should be the 


°MS. VII, p. 20. 


Wise _ AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


Fi 


only proposition the committee would report. In this way a docu- 
ment, which according to all the rules of legislative propriety be- 
longed to the committee on Finance from the beginning, was at 
length entrusted to Mr. Webster as its chairman, for a brief period 
and a specific purpose, under well guarded restrictions that it should 
not be used in any way that would supersede the mode of proceed 
ing introduced by Mr. Clay at the commencement of the session, o 
the end and object of which the reader has been informed. 
On the following morning Mr. Webster made a report, which had 
been long before prepared for a very different purpose, modified to 
suit the qualified reference I have described. It was an elaborate and 
I presume able paper, which took an hour and a half in the reading 
and recommended the passage of Mr. Clay’s resolution and nothing 
else. As respects any influence or effect, it fell from the hands of its 
author still-born. Six thousand copies of it were ordered to be 
printed, that being the only action that was ever had upon it and the 
debate in the Senate was resumed as it stood the day before. : 
The Legislature of his State finally came to Mr. Webster’s assist- 
ance, to enable him to relieve himself from the unpleasant position 
into which he had been thrown by the reversal of the usual and only 
regular course of legislative proceedings at the beginning, a position 
which was becoming every day better understood on all sides, and 
upon which he was not a little jeered by his political opponents. This, 
it was thought, could only be done by the introduction, through this 
agency, either as chairman of the proper committee, or in his capacity _ 
of Senator, of an appropriate and distinct proposition to relieve the 
country, founded on principles consistent with the grounds so far con- _ 
tended for by the opposition. 
Such a movement appertained of right to the station in whic Mr 
Clay had assisted in placing his rival, although he had from the 
commencement of the session porated him from making it. 
The Congress had now advanced into the fourth month of its ses- 
sion and had been already within a few days of three months debat- 
ing the propriety of the removal of the deposits, without even a propo- 
sition for their restoration before either body. The public mind w 
evidently becoming restless under a proceeding, the false and ficti 
tious character of which, every day was making more and more ap- 
parent. S | 
The sagacious members of the Massachusetts Legislature saw that 
the time had arrived when a proposition to put an end to the shan 
fight about the deposits, and to present for decision the real issue 
the only one in which success could be of value to them, would be 
received with favor by their friends. They therefore passed a set 
of resolutions, in which, after paying due respect to the mat ers 


dl 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 733 


Ed things upon which Congress had been all the winter engaged, 
the necessity of a change of position was shadowed forth in a way 
which was thought likely to give the least offense, and promised to 
be the most effective. These resolutions were, on the Ist of March, 


all the threadbare subjects of the session were once more skillfully 
re-hashed and served up for the benefit of the Senate and the public. 
_ On the 17th of March, Mr. Webster, having tried motions of ref- 
erence to the committee of Finance, as the means of arriving at a 
proposition of that character in vain, gave notice that he would, on 
the next day, move for leave to bring in a Bill “to re-charter the 
bank of the United States.” On the 18th he made the motion and 
submitted, with preliminary remarks, the copy of a Bill, according 
to which the charter would be extended as it stood for six years. 

_ Whatever may have been Mr. Clay’s thoughts in respect to this 
movement, he understood too well the feelings of the hour, to evince 
the slightest disrespect to the Massachusetts Legislature, out of 
whose proceedings the proposition had sprung, or to interpose ob- 
stacles to its prosecution by the Massachusetts Senators. He was 
moreover quite sure that Mr. Webster’s notice and Bill might safely 
be left to the opposition it would receive from other quarters. 
When Mr. Webster took his seat, Mr. Leigh of Virginia rose and 


that he should define his position. The Legislature of Virginia had, 
he said, passed a resolution, denying the power of Congress to 
establish a bank, he had accepted his appointment with the knowl- 
edge that such were the wishes of his State, and with it the trust of 
carrying them into effect, founded, as they were, upon an opinion in 
which he fully concurred. 
,» Mr. Wright followed Mr. Leigh, announced his desire to speak 
| on the subject and moved an adjournment which took place. The 
question of leave came up every morning as unfinished business, 
| when it was farther discussed and again laid over. 
| Mr. Wright made a long and very able speech against the consti- 
| tutionality of the present, or any bank of the U. S. He was replied 
to by Mr. Webster. Mr. Calhoun announced his wish to address 
e Senate and as the day was far advanced, it adjourned on his 
I otion. The next day he spoke for an hour and a half against the 
inciples of the Bill, regarding it as being only a temporary expe- 
ent, but in favor of a new bank upon the basis of the present one 
d peehiihiting the issuing of notes under $10, and the payment of 
Government dues in any notes of banks under the denomination of 
. Mr. Benton followed Mr. Calhoun, whom he complimented for 


734. AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. = 


having restored the debate to the elevation that belonged to the 
Senate, in a speech of great length and power, against the present 
or any other national bank. Mr. White of Tennessee succeeded to 
the floor and made another two days speech against the constitu- 
tionality and expediency of a national bank. He finished on the 
25th of March, a week after the debate had commenced. When Mr. 
White concluded, Mr. Webster rose and, after complaining of the 
lengthened debate which had arisen on his motion, a thing which 
he believed had never occurred before, moved to lay his own motion: 
on the table. On that motion, Mr. Forsyth, to mark the satisfaction 
which he and his friends had derived from the introduction of Mr. 
Webster’s notice, by which the veil was rent in twain and the real 
matter in controversy, brought before the Senate and promulgated 
to the country, and probably to worry Webster, called for the ayes 
and noes. Mr. Webster avowed it to be his intention to call it up 
on a future day, but he never did so, being too happy to be relieved 
from the odium he had incurred by putting his party in a false posi- 
tion. But whilst thus yielding to their mandate, he could not 
forego playing the part of the dog in the manger, by a fling, as 
pointed as the habitual dread in which he stood of Mr. Clay would 
admit, at the only proposition for relief then before the Senate. . 
In his judgment [he said] any relief for the present distress -of the count ry, 
must be carried through Congress by the action of public opinion out of doo rs. 
Such was the distracted state of the community, that no relief could be expected, 
till public sentiment gave direction to some specific measures, and with this 
object he had moved for leave to introduce the Bill, with a view to action 
upon it in due season hereafter. : Bt 
Mr. Clay did not, in any stage of these proceedings open his li 
upon the subject, farther than to say, by way of reminder, that he 
“had a special order, long locked up in the debates of the Senate 
and to express his wish that another week would bring it to a close 
And throughout the residue of the struggle, Mr. Webster appeare 
content to regard himself so far as it related to the introduction c 
substantive provisions for redress, a functus officio. : al 
There have been brief periods, when the° personal relations o 
Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster were to all appearance cordial and to 
certain extent, of a confidential character. Such was the case 
through a considerable portion of Mr. Adams’ administration, but 
even then, as we have seen, they soon suffered a bitter change. Witl 
those rare and limited exceptions, the description I have here 
of their acts and feelings presents, I cannot but think, a fair 
truthful view of their political and personal relations, between 
time of Mr. Clay’s first accession to the Federal Republican part: 


°MS. VI, p. 25, 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. (35 


that of his death. This, few well informed members of that 
would consider themselves at liberty to controvert. The per- 
1 anxieties attending this state of things and the unceasing 
s of the prominent supporters of the party to which they be- 
ged to mitigate the obstacles to success arising from it, were 
ters of notoriety. There were differences in their disposition and 
eraments, which made harmonious action between them, for any 
h of time, or even for a short period under trying circum- 
nees extremely difficult. I will not attempt to particularise those 
erences, nor can it be necessary to say, that in my estimation they 
ect the greater credit on Mr. Clay. But there was an element of 
iscord more potent than any that arose from such sources. Of 
se who now composed the political party, to which they then be- 
ged, the greatest proportion, by far, probably nearly seven tenths, 
been members of that in which Mr. Webster had been reared, to 
he had always belonged and in which he had beconie a leader, 
Ist the number of the recruits, Mr. Clay had been able to carry 
h him, from that in which he had been educated, and by which 
‘too had been highly honored, was comparatively small. 
Mr. Webster had a right to think that his talents were, in some 
pects superior, and in all, at least, equal to those of Mr. Clay. 
latter, however, soon acquired a popularity and influence in the 
ks of their common party, which eclipsed his own, notwithstand- 
what he naturally regarded as his superior advantages. It was 
in human nature that he could ever become perfectly reconciled 
his preference, even if his dispositions had been more magnani- 
s and placable than they were. But the exceptional occurrences 
earty concurrence in aims and councils, to which I alluded, inter- 
od from time to time, disqualifying him from resisting the supe- 
influence of Clay in the movements of their party, otherwise than 
tealth, and hence his side intrigues to check the advance of the 
er, constantly stimulated by the consciousness of the true char- 
of the relations between them. 
; would not be necessary to go beyond the influences resulting 
n these considerations, more especially when viewed in connection 
a the suspicions imbibed by Mr. Clay, during the recess, for ex- 
nations of the character I have ascribed to the relations that 
ted between those gentlemen during the panic session; but there 
e not wanting other and not less efficient stimulants to unfriendly 
on that occasion. The Whig party, composed for the most 
f the descendants of men who had never failed to overrate the 
tical influence of a monied interest like that of the National 
: and of such appeals to the self interest and fears of the electors, 
$ were contemplated, did not permit themselves to doubt of their 


736 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 2 
success in discrediting the administration of President Jackson, 
far at least as to enable them to control the election of his successor. 
The public man who acted the most efficient part in the struggles te 
that end, would be, in the nature of things and according to the 
course of parties, their choice for the succession. 

Both Clay and Webster so understood the matter, and the forme! r 
was determined that the latter should not be that man. 

1No farther attempt was made to change either the shape of the 
question or the mode of treating it which had from the beginning 
been under Mr. Clay’s exclusive control. The debate was accord= 
ingly resumed at the point where it stood when Mr. Webster’s efforts 
to accomplish those changes commenced, and that was done with 
the intention, not expressed, but well understood, that things should 
go on as they had gone, until Mr. Clay should decide that the tim 
had arrived for the introduction of a more definite proposition. 

We return therefore to our description of the manner in whiel 
the labors of panic making—the great business of the session—th 
chief feature in the plan, by which the Government was to be ovei 
awed—devised in Mr. Biddle’s closet and entered upon by him before 
the meeting of Congress were carried on. : 

The author of every proposition for redress that had been, or wa 
thereafter to be, introduced, Mr. Clay, went also beyond any of hi 
coadjutors in the variety al violence of the denunciations which 
he hurled, from his place on the floor of the Senate, at the President 
and his constitutional advisers, for the course they had pursued im 
the matters which formed the burthen of his complaints. 

Many of the memorials were sent to him for presentation, ai 
scarce a day passed, for months, in which his tall and erect figui 
was not to be seen, towering above his fellow Senators, busiest amon, 
the busy in scattering seeds of discord and alarm throughout the 
land. 
It would fill a volume to repeat and describe what he said and 
did during those days of ceaseless agitation. He did not confine his 
observations nor his propositions to the particular measure under dis- 
cussion, but introduced into it, or by the side of it, every act 
matter, which he thought Tie aid in the accomplishment of h 
great design, that of alarming and stultifying the public mind 
Mr. Clay’ s situation was the more harrassing as he was inowsg oly 
warring against truth, for he understood the case in all its beari 
having largely assisted in its preparation and was thus worse off 
than his unfortunate dupes, many of whom, in their clamor against 
the Government gave utterance to their real convictions. A ] 
indomitable spirit would have quailed under the constant and sey 


1¥rom this point to the end the transcript has been corrected by Van Burer . 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 737 


s to which he was exposed but he had steeled himself equally 
the rebukes of others and his own reproach. 
can notice only a few of his efforts to give the stamp and 
of reality to a fictitious case, efforts as unresting, as toilsome, 
as fruitless as those of the unhappy Sysyphus of the classic 


ist yet scarcely warm in his official seat and before he was 
e ag to issue his proclamation of outlawry against the old hero of 
e White House, he launched at him a stinging bolt in the shape 
fa Senatorial call for a copy of the paper he had read to his 
vabinet containing his reasons for wishing to remove the deposits. 
r. Clay could not have thought that he had a constitutional right 
J Reeaks this call, and knew that it would not be complied with, but 
; might he thought, irritate an inflammable temper and lead to the 
ibition of some act of disrespect towards the Senate—a branch 
pf the Executive [Legislative] department which would justify or 
suse the vehement denunciation with which he was prepared to 
ssault the President. The latter, however, understood a great deal 
etter than his enemies supposed, when it might be useful to give 
ree vent to his feelings, and when it was wisest to qualify and sup- 
sthem. He sent to the Senate a brief respectful message, assign- 
ig reasons for refusing to comply with its request—reasons, the 
gnclusiveness of which were but feebly controverted, even by the 
ithor of the call, and thus placed on its files a deca which 
rded to his ae a gratifying contrast between the course he 
ought it proper to adopt in his intercourse with another branch 
f the departments of the Government, at the head of which he had 
sen placed by the people, and that of the Senate, on a subsequent 
scasion towards himself. The matter was almost immediately 
popped in the Senate. If that body had been denied what was 
to it under the constitution, it would not have submitted so 
adily and quietly to the response of the President. 
‘Mr. Clay entered the Senate but a few mornings afterwards 
1 ith a woe-begone countenance, which he was very capable of as- 
ing, and instantly made the following communication to that 
bdy, which I give in the words of the reporter: 
vf . Clay said he had just heard through the public prints that one of the 
corporated banks of Maryland, situate in Baltimore, had failed. He had 
so heard that in consequence of a supposed connexion between that bank 
d the Union bank of Maryland, one of the banks selected by the Secretary 
the Treasury as a depository of the public money in that city, a great 
D was made upon that selected bank yesterday, for specie. He had been 
formed that the Secretary of the Treasury was a stockholder to some extent, 
did not know how much, in the Union bank, and there might be great danger 
the public moneys now on deposit there. He hoped it would turn out the 


_ 127483°—yor 2—20-—47 


738 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. int 


Union bank was safe, and that the Secretary was not a stockholder to su h 
an amount that his interest could be supposed to have induced him to 
select that bank as a depository of the public money. He had also heard 
that in apprehension of a run on the Union bank, a treasury draft had been 
issued in its favor for $150,000 and that it was the duty of the Senate to 
look into it. He ° had therefore prepared the following resolution, which 
he hoped no gentleman would object to its being adopted immediately. 
Resolved, That the Secretary of the Treasury be directed to report to 
the Senate, what amount of public money is now on deposit in the Union 
bank of Maryland: On what account it was deposited, and whether an y 
treasury drafts, contingent or other, have been, during the month of March, 
1834, furnished to the said bank, to enable it to meet any demands which 
might be made upon it. i 
Mr. Forsyth, who was never silent when the character of his 
friend was assailed, said: 
If the gentleman had introduced the resolution without any remarks, he could 
have had no objection to it. But after what had been said by the gentleman, 
he thought we ought to have some time to see the resolution. It was said 
that the Secretary of the Treasury was a stockholder in the Union bank—he 
knew nothing to what extent. But he had no hesitation in saying that the 
interest of the Secretary, whatever it might be, had not the slightest effect 
on him in selecting the bank as one of the public depositories. 
The resolution was passed when it came up in its order. * 
The dullest imagination would not find it difficult to appreciate 
the injurious effects which such an announcement—coming from 
such a man—delivered in such a place and at such an exciting 
period, was almost certain to have upon not only the interests, but 
the safety even of the bank which was thus assailed, and the sus- 
picion and distrust it was calculated to cast upon the character of 
one of the purest men in the country, then but just entered upor 
the duties of a highly responsible office and upon a great public 
measure, then in its earliest stage, and as yet unfortified by the 
favorable judgment of the People—now happily, justified and ap- 
plauded by every honest heart, of whatever political prepossession: 
If Mr. Clay had stopped with what he had read in the papers, 
would not have been blamed, for he would but have repeated wha 
was already before the public and what was of no consequence to 
any save the bank reported to have failed and its dealers, but the 
disturbing matters he thus published, were on mere hearsay author- 
ity; he had heard this alarming thing—been informed of that a 
had again heard of another! These hearsays and surmises, so lik 
to be injurious to the fair fame of Mr. Taney—to revive the ru 
upon the Union bank, if it had already commenced—to excite th 
apprehension of those who held its paper and of all who might b 
interested in the safety of the public funds and to increase the ge 


° MS. VII, p. 30. 
1March 31, 1834. Register of Debates, X, pt. 1, 1140-41 and 1206. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 739 


eral alarm, were fulminated from the Senate chamber to work their 
mi schievous effects until they should be overtaken by the compara- 
tively tardy movement of official refutation. 

Secretary Taney delayed only long enough to enable him to write 
to the President of the bank to obtain a statement of his own stock 
transactions which he transmitted as soon as received to the Senate, 
with a communication, in which he assumed, as he was bound to do, 
that the enquiry in regard to the stock he Eeld: in the bank, pointed 
to the motives by which he had been influenced in his official acts, 
and therefore demanded at his hands the fullest disclosure of them. 
He stated that the report that had reached Mr. Clay’s ears “that a 
treasury draft had been issued to the Union bank, to enable it to meet 
any demands that might be made upon it” was utterly groundless— 
that no “Treasury drafts, contingent, or otherwise, were furnished 
to the Union bank of Maryland, during the month of March 1834,” 
and that no Treasury draft, or draft of any description contingent, 
or otherwise, had ever been furnished to the bank of Maryland, since 
he came into office. Mr. Taney’s letter was, on Mr. Clay’s motion, 


whose files it slept the sleep of death, by the side of hundreds, not 
fo say thousands of distress memorials which had also been refer red 


Mr. Clay never again alluded to the subject, not even when Mr. 
Paney’s nomination, as Secretary of the Treasury was considered and 
jected by the Senate, nor was there, I believe, a single man, how- 
er deeply steeped in party politics, not excepting Mr. Clay himself, 
Who harbored a doubt of the entire purity of his [Mr. Taney] mo- 
tives and acts in the whole matter. 

_ Not content with the daily discussions on his general resolutions, 
nouncing the President for the removal of the deposits and the 
parate speeches of the Senators on the presentation of each 
morial, Mr. Clay introduced a resolution instructing the Com- 
“mittee on Finance to enquire and report on the propriety of giving 
| relief by extending the time of payment upon revenue bonds. This 
olution was kept before the Senate for more than a month, and 
ude the subject of protracted debate. There were thus provided 
ee daily channels for the dissemination of panic—viz: the presen- 
ion of distress memorials, and the proceedings of public meetings, 
. Clay’s general PLoltitions and his proposition in relation to 
venue bonds, on each of which the speeches of Senators were all 
mposed of like materials and directed to the same points—the 
alence of unexampled distress and the proper remedy. There 
S not an idea suggested, or circumstance referred to, that was 
E equally applicable in either debate, and that was not indis- 


. os > >= “sy wf ten 


740 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


criminately used in all. But the sagacious parliamentarian w o 
introduced two of the subjects and largely participated in the organ- 
ization of the other, was aware of the necessity of relieving the 
body, and more especially the public mind from the tedium of long” 
continued debates in a single form and therefore supplied them 
both with a constant change of dishes, though the food was in all 
cases the same. After the discussions on the latter resolution had 
already been of long continuance, it occurred to one of the Sena- 
tors, friendly to the administration, to enquire of the Chair whethe 3 
the indulgence proposed to be extended, had been asked for by the 
merchants, and on being informed that no petition, or applications 
to that effect had been made by them, the enquiring Senator ob- 
jected further to the resolution, the manifest impropriety of thru a 
ing upon so intelligent and shrewd a class of the public debtors, 
an indulgence of which they had not sufficiently felt the necessity, 
to give themselves the trouble of applying for it, and that too, at a 
time when the predictions of, and lamentations over the speedy 
bankruptcy of the national treasury were among the daily echoes 
of the Senate Chamber. 

The opposition to the resolution, thus strengthened, was soon in 
sufficient force to lay it upon the table and from which, Mr. Clay. 
regarding it as having contributed its share towards the creation 01 di 
panic, made no attempt to raise it. 

Either forgetting that Mr. Webster had some time before sub=_ 
mitted a resolution instructing his Committee to “enquire into th | 
probable effect of the present state of commercial affairs on the 
revenue of the United States,” or not convinced, as he ought to hay 
been, by Webster’s subsequent and ominous silence upon the subject 
that the business of panic making would derive no aid from tha 
source, Mr. Clay offered resolutions calling upon the Secretary 0 
the Treasury to report the amount of duties received and accrued ¢ 
foreign imports during the 1st quarter of 1834, shewing the com 
parative amount between that quarter and the corresponding of 
in 1838, and also whether any thing had occurred since his annul 
report to change his opinion in respect to the probable revenue, fro 
imports for 1834. : 

The friends of the administration, having had their attention call 
to the subject by Mr. Webster’s movement, had possessed them 
of the true state of the case, and dispensed with the rule requ 
two readings and on different days of said resolutions, allowi 
to pass forthwith. The Secretary’s report shewed an exces 
almost ten millions of imports during the first half of 1834, and 
excess also of more than a million and a half over his own estim: 
of the accruing revenue for the same period. 


i: AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 741 
It is scarcely necessary to say that Mr. Clay, after this to him un- 
alatable disclosure was made, became as silent upon the subject as 
fr. Webster. Both were not only disappointed, but discomfited 
7 the result of their investigations, with the difference, that the lat- 
r had been the most cautious in his movements and had thereby ex- 
osed himself to less mortification. 

At another time we find Mr. Clay plunged with his usual im- 
etuosity in an exciting debate with the New York Senators, Silas 
Wright and Nathaniel P. Talmadge, (the latter, Mr. Clay’s subse- 
uen' ally, but then in a state of comparative Innocence) in respect 
o the solidity of the “New York Safety fund system,” upon which 
e, aided by Mr. Webster, had made an angry and well prepared 
ssault. Here we have another and an instructive illustration of the 
fue character of their complaints in regard to the destruction of the 
confidence of the people in the pecuniary concerns of the Country 
nd of the propositions for their relief. I have briefly referred to 
his system before, having aided in its construction and assumed the 
rincipal responsibility for its adoption. It had, to the day of this 
ssault upon it, supplied the largest and most commercial state of 
he Confederacy with a paper currency, on which her people had not 
st a single dollar and at that moment possessed their fullest con- 
dence, as it would in all likelihood have continued to do to the pres- 
at time, if the political power of the State had not unhappily fallen 
to the hands of a class of men who used it to overturn the financial 
ad economical systems, devised and matured by those modest and 
upretending, but able public servants and ° benefactors, Wright, 
offman, Flagg, and their associates, under the influence of which 
ae State, in their day, signally prospered. 

The safety fund system was therefore naturally an eye sore to the 
mic makers, presenting a spot, and that not a small one, either 
/its extent or in the amount of business afforded by its influence, 
hose condition furnished a standing refutation, practical and con- 
usive, of the assumption of a general derangement of the currency, 
confidently advanced by the advocates of the bank; and the talents 
d industry of Clay and Webster were for that reason actively di- 
ted to its prostration. Hence their labored efforts to impair the 
nfidence which the public at large, and the people of New York in 
rticular, had in its stability, and to inspire them with apprehen- 
ms that it was about to be involved in the wreck of similar insti- 
ions; which the Bank of the United States aimed to bring about 
d for which, the removal of the deposits was to be held responsible. 
My friend, Mr. Forsyth, happily and truly characterised that 
lammatory and unprofitable debate, when he said at its close that 
ae gentlemen from New York, if they had taken his advice, 


° MS. VIL, p. 35. 


742 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


might have saved themselves a great deal of trouble. They could 
not recommend the Safety Fund System to those who assailed it— 
be it good, or bad. It came from New York.” 

That the excitement which was kept up during the whole of a 
session of Congress, to which the people, almost with one accord, 
attached the appellation of the “ Panic Session” by which it has, 
as I have said, ever since been distinguished—was not the conse- 
quence of real grievances felt by the great body of the people, but 
the result of factious and extraneous means purposely devised to 
produce it, was clearly seen in all the movements of its authors— 
especially in these shifts to which Mr. Clay, the generalissimo of 
their operations, was driven, to provide adequate subjects for suc- 
cessful agitation. q 

The constitution directs, in express terms, that the officers of the 
Federal Government shall be appointed by the President, but is 
silent in regard to the authority by which they may be removed. 
A question was raised at the commencement of the Government, 
upon the latter point, was elaborately discussed, and as was sup 
posed, was finally decided by the first Congress, in favor of the 
power of removal by the President. That construction had since — 
been generally acquiesced in, and had been acted upon, without 
intermission, by every President, not excepting Mr. Adams, at” 
the head of whose Cabinet stood Mr. Clay. The necessities of his 
present position drove the latter to attempt to galvanize into new — 
life that long settled question, and to that end he offered, with great_ 
solemnity, a series of resolutions,’ denying the power bid denounc- __ 
ing its exercise, which, after being kept before the Senate for a 
month, and used for the purpose for which they were introduced— 
that of agitation—were allowed to lie on the table, on which slum: 
bered, without risk of being disturbed, so many similar propositions 
introduced only for effect, without an idea on the part of theil 
authors of pressing them to successful efforts. 

Among his “great guns” for the campaign, Mr. Clay count 
with confidence on the effects of the proceedings he designed an 
adopted in regard to his Bill for the distribution of the proceed 
of the public lands among the States, which had been passed at t 
very close of the previous session, having been kept back with ¢ 
view to its rejection by the President. The Bill was sent to th 
Executive at so late an hour as to make it absolutely impossible t 
read and consider its numerous provisions ;? a proceeding which lei 
him no other proper course than to omit to return it at that sessio 
to the House in which it had originated, and by which omission, th 


1 Four resolutions on the removal of public officers, Mar. 7, 1834. 

2 A pill to appropriate for a limited time, the proceeds of the sales of the public lands 
ete. It was sent to the President for signature on the evening of Saturday, March 
1833. j - 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 743 


‘I would, from that cause alone, fail to become a law. But always 
xi ious to have his constituents know and understand the principles 
upon which he acted, and on this occasion particularly desirous “to 
gason the matter out before the people,” he sent the Bill to the 
ate at their ensuing session, with a message* informing them of 
> inability to consider it before the close of the last session on 
count of the lateness of the time when it was received by him, but 
riving his reasons at large, why he could not approve it. 
It was in a reply to this document upon a subject of such vast in- 
est, that Mr. Clay thought he could, especially in the then excited 
e of the public mind, produce a great sensation. To that end 
1€ Estroduced a new Bill, of precisely the same character, had it 
referred to the committee on the public lands, of which he was a 
member, where it was retained some five months before he made his 
Saded reply to the argument of the President, in the shape of a 
report from the Committee. I doubt whether he ever took more 
mins with a public document than he bestowed on this, or ever 
sherished loftier anticipations of the success of any paper or speech 
f bwhich he was the author. My friend Mr. Wright once entertained 
e with a description of a scene that transpired in the course of its 
reparation, which I can see no objection to my repeating here. He 
nd Mr. John M. Clayton, Senator from Deleware, though differing 
ridely in their political views and associations, formed for each other 
trong personal attachments, and often amused themselves by talk- 
ng without reserve of occurrences that arose behind the scenes, in 
eir respective political camps, confident as they both were, that no 
in mproper use would be made of the confidential communications in 
thich they indulged themselves. On speaking to Mr. Clayton of 
fr. Clay’s report, shortly after it had been made, Mr. Wright ob- 
ved, with natural surprise, that the subject, in itself quite un- 
musing, excited much merriment in his friend, which the latter 
ade no effort to control, but on the contrary proceeded at once to 
splain. Mr. Clay, he said, when he had completed his report, sum- 
_ Watkins Leigh, of Virginia, Robert Letcher a representative 
m Kentucky, an old and particular friend, and himself to his 
gm, to hear it read and to give their opinions upon its contents. 
hey Sationded at the appointed time and found Mr. Clay with the 
luminous document, which required two hours in the reading, 
sfore him. It was in the month of May, but the evenings were yet 
l, and their host had directed the materials for a good wood fire 
be placed on the andirons, and after lighting it himself, he took 
$ seat, put on his spectacles and surrounded by his three friends, 
commenced reading the report. They were much pleased with the 


2 December 4, 1833. 2 December 10, 1833. 


744 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. __ 


paper, as far as they heard the reading, and so expressed themse 
which together with the interest he himself felt in it, excited M 
Clay considerably and he read on with increasing animation. But it 
having all dined out, where the wines had met their approval and 
the fire becoming a rousing one—the three counsellors soon yielded 
to the genial warmth of the room, and their attention gradually 
slackened until they successively fell into a sound sleep. This must 
have been their state for several minutes before Mr. Clay’s attentioz 
was directed to their condition by Letcher’s snoring. Clayton was 
himself first aroused by the loud and angry tones of Mr. Clay and 
found the latter standing in the middle of the room swearing a 
Letcher, who was in the act of making his escape from it, and via 
he vehemently upbraided with coming to him along with the others, 
all in a state of intoxication. “Old Jackson himself” said Clayton 
describing the scene, “was never in a greater passion, nor ever 
stormed louder.” } 

The report was able, and if it had been, in one respect, more skill 
fully constructed, would have been better calculated to produce the 
designed effect. Its great error consisted in the prominence it gave 
to the retention of the Bill at the preceding session, as a grievous 
fault on the part of the President. This charge was so palpably 
unjust, and the object in sending it to him during the expiring hours 
of the session, so obvious, as to shock all unprejudiced minds and t 
prevent them from doing justice to the report in other respects. _ 

Mr. Forsyth, ever prompt to seize the advantage offered by suc 
errors, pressed this objection with decided effect on the coming 7 
the report, and was ably seconded, in this movement, by Mr. Kins 
of Alabama. j 

Mr. Clay’ s co-adjutors in the Senate, participating fully i in Hl 
extreme views, all contributed their aid in blowing the trumpe t o 
distrust and alarm. Every matter that could excite, or revive, } 
keep alive prejudices and resentments against the old chief at t i 
head of the Government, was pressed into service. Mr. Ca 
brought in a bill to repeal the “ Force Bill” of the previous ses 
a measure, that at the time of its passage, produced intense 
ment in South Carolina, without the slightest intention of ev 
ing to pass it, as his confederates in the great object of the sessio 
would upon the exhibition of such a design, have been obli 
unite with the friends of the administraticn to prevent its p 
but understanding his motive, they so winked at his endeavo: 
resuscitate the public interest in the subject and to use it as a “ 
head and bloody bones ” with which to keep alive alarms and re 
ments which were in danger of becoming obsolete. 


1 William R. King. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 745 


+. Ewing? of Ohio, a most indefatigable agitator, possessed of 
ly respectable talents, and capable of almost any extent of phy- 
indurance, was made chairman of the Committee on Post Offices. 
The overhauling of this department had, from the beginning, been 
egarded by Mr. Clay asa rich mine. He had been brought up with 
ML yor Barry, who had unhappily been placed at its head, and 
ew him te be an honest man, of kind and generous disposition ; 
at illy qualified to resist the importunity of that class, which is 
ilways to be found besieging the Treasury, and many of whom, at 
he time of which we write, clung to the skirts of such men as Col. 
Richard M. Johnson and the Postmaster General. It was equally 
rell understood that the gallant Colonel, though among the bravest 
# the brave and patriotic and honest, was also, to a great extent, 
b ubject to the infirmity which disqualified Major Barry for such a 
post as he filled, and was not more to be relied upon to check the 
ou dity of his ends. These were, most of them, Kentucky people, 
whom Mr. Clay knew as the saying is, “like a book.” I¢ was to the 
hort comings of that department, therefore, more than any other, 
that he looked for essential aid, in the ° work he had undertaken, and 
s friend Ewing pursued the Postmaster General with a vengeance. 
oe ainly no department of the Government had ever beioed been 
subject to so severe an ordeal, and it is equally certain that the ad- 
nuit istration was more damaged by the operations of that branch of 
» Government than by that of all the others. Many faults had 
pubtles: been committed, not a few petty larcenies had escaped 
= notice of its chief, and its general administration had been far 
eSS Eomatty and methodical than it ought to have been, but I be- 
eve I do not greatly err when I say that Major Barry left it with- 
a 4 any serious impeachment of his character as an honest and hon- 
rable man, in the estimation even of his political enemies, and he 
aad no other. 
Mr. Poindexter, one of the Senators from Mississippi, a man who 
Ss never so aieckes in his element as when surrounded by public ex- 
it tment aroused to its highest point, and who possessed a talent for 
aising it not excelled by any of his contemporaries, was placed at 
1e head of the Committee on public lands. Endowed with abilities, 
which were in my judgment, far superior to those which even his 
“le asks conceded to him, and with an eager disposition for mischief, 
mbarked in the business of panic making with his whole soul; 
id ad by his incessant exhibition of charges of frauds in the sales = 
© public lands, and of other enormities committed by President 
ac ekson’s appointees, threw the whole western Country into a state 


1Thomas Ewing. 2MS, VII, p. 40. 


Par 


746 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


of excitement more intense and more disturbing than the wire- 
in those regions were able to produce by all their clamor and mi 
resentation about the removal of the deposits. . 

Numerous other panic enterprises, of the same character, were st 
on foot by these leading alarmists in the Senate and their zea. 
and, in some instances, scarcely less able co-adjutors [outside], du: 
this memorable session, which I have not room to notice. These 
forts were greatly aided by those portions of the public press wh 
made the cause of the Bank their own, constituting at least th 
fourths of those potent instruments of power and embracing wit 
scarcely a single exception, every paper devoted to the support of th: 
great political organization then called the Federal Republics 
party; besides several [papers] of considerable prominence a 
supposed influence, which had advocated the election of Ger ere 


Jackson, and were friendly to his administration at its commene 
ment, but had been drawn into the support of the bank and s 
sequently into the opposition ranks, by the arts and appliances 
that formidable institution. It would not be possible, in a we 
like this, to give anything like a general selection even from the 
articles to shew the false and exaggerated views of the conditio a 
the country and the conduct of the administration in respect t 
them, with which they sought to poison the public mind. An oc 
volume would not suffice to do so. Nothing could serve half so 
as such an exhibition, if it were practicable, to illustrate the I 
choly extent to which the credulity of partisan prejudices may 
greatly excited periods, be played upon by artful and desi 
men, in the possession of such means. 

Let the following extracts, taken from a publication freqt 
referred to in this work, and which, as it was designed as a 
manent record of public events, assumed a degree of gravity 
sobriety not common to its fellow laborers in the political viney 
and was less gross, if not less bitter, in its denunciations of the 
ernment, serve as a reduced type of the assaults to which the | 
dent and his administration were exposed from those quarters: 

Many rumors are afloat. One says, that certain draughts of the 1 
States (not of the bank of the United States,) have been dishonour 
London, and returned—another, that about two millions of the stocks 
certain state, which were (lately) at a high advance in England, have | 
sent back, because of the wreck of confidence in American funds, and 
the bills drawn on the anticipated sale of these stocks have come back 
tested—and a third, that the new deposit banks are about to be hardly 
to meet the demands of “the government ”—with many fears of disast 
money affairs, whether respecting corporate bodies or private individuals. 
are not swift to give common reports—but this is a time of high fee 
extraordinary excitenfent; and, while we would not increase that ex 


by any use of artificial means, we feel it a matter of duty to put our fi 
on their guard, at this season of alarm to men in business, though all r 


. AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 747 


prudent persons owght to have stood “at ease ” and employment, with 
wages, abounding for working men. If the keeping of the wholesomeness 
the currency has been violently transferred to stock-gamblers and money- 
ers, through ignorance of its nature, or from any other cause, the fault 
s not rest with us—nor shall we remain neutral, and quietly suffer our 
in the common distress or ruin that seems to impend. 

ionfidence in American stocks has been mightily shaken in Hurope, and the 
“hurrah” of the multitude will not relieve us for the want of credit there. As 
gle instance out of many before us, we may observe, that one of our sub- 
ibers, in this city, has received by the last packet ship from Liverpool, a let- 
from his correspondent, an intelligent Scottish farmer, in which he directs 
all his funds in the United States be collected from the south and west, 
here they are now employed, and invested as safely as possible in Baltimore, 
der the immediate care of his friend—giving as a reason for the change or- 
sred, the clamor raised by “ the government ” against the United States bank, 
vyhich would force it to curtail its accommodations to the Country, and create 
eat distress in the community, by unsettling the currency. 

The writer of the letter above alluded to resided a good many years in the 
nited States and transacted a large business—on returning home he left be- 
nd him no smail amount of funds which he thought happily invested, and 
out a desire to disturb them; but at 4,000 miles distance, he has seen ap- 
aching events as we saw them, and peremptorily ordered that all his funds 
1 be concentrated in the charge of his friend, and so deposited that they 
be at his own sure disposal, when called for. He feels that our hitherto 
arivalled currency can not be longer relied on, and will probably withdraw 
s funds. He had, perhaps, just seen the paper “read to the Cabinet ” in the 
Register, (which is received by him) and hence the decision that he has made. 
But neither the excitement, nor the pressure, has yet nearly reached the ex- 
tent to which both will proceed. Every day adds failure to failure, misery to 
misery, and reduces the means of the most solvent persons. Many men, as yet, 
their debits by exhausting their fortunes, in sacrifices to preserve their 
edit! A member of the legislature of Massachusetts lately said in his place 
that $2,500,000 had been paid, in that State, for extra interests since the re- 
moval of the deposits. We think that this is less than the truth, in a commu- 
ity so eminently commercial as the State named. It is our opinion, derived 
from several conversations with persons who ought to know, that the daily 
amount of savings in Baltimore amounts to $100,000. 


- With articles like these, almost wholly unfounded in their mate- 
ial assumptions and suggestions, was the country literally flooded 
hroughout the panic session. 

The extent to which the country was thus alarmed, her public 
nsels distracted, and her business paralyzed will, even at this day 
indifference to the signs of the times, however ominous of evil, 
scarcely credited, however well established.* 

The Senate as a body and the House of Representatives as far as 
power of the Minority extended, having been converted into 
oratories for the construction of panic cries the best adapted to 
ster and continue the prevailing alarm—the fruits of their labors, 
“were, after they had been used in panic speeches there, re-hashed by 
their friends in the State legislatures and other public bodies, and 


17This portion of the autobiography was written in the year 1860. 


ad 
* a ae , 


ae i 

<n ~ z 
haope >. a 
- eee 


748 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, = 


spread far and wide through a devoted press, and finally returned — 
to the place from whence they came, in the various shapes of dis- 
tress memorials, the inflammatory proceedings of public meetings, — 
backed, as has been stated, by distress committees from all parts of 
the country, bringing tidings of the resentments of the people, and 
filling the ears of members with jeremiads of present distress and 
coming war. 

The dénouement of this conspiracy against the supremacy of the 
popular will and the independent action of its legitimate representa- 
tives had fortunately to be disclosed in the presence of the friends 
of the administration in the two Houses, constituting a majority of 
the popular branch, and nearly a moiety of the Senate, and contain- 
ing in their ranks as noble spirits as ever before graced a popular — 
cause, by whom the whole scheme was thoroughly understood and of 
course denounced with unsparing severity. These denunciations, 
and the criminations and recriminations to which they gave rise, 
produced on both sides the most angry feelings, and scarcely a day 
passed, for three successive months without the exhibition of a war 
of words between individual members, some of which were with 
difficulty prevented from furnishing occasion for hostile meetings. 
The Senate chamber, so long the forum in which grave and venerable. 
Senators discussed and matured measures appertaining to the public 
welfare, was unhappily made to resemble more an arena for gladia- 
torial exhibitions of partisan conflicts. The constitutional restraints 
by which my official action was principally confined to the duties of 
umpirage, and the consequent propriety of my position, saved me 
from the temptation of participating in these bitter feuds, and 
should have protected me against any attempts to involve me in th em. 
against my will. 

My inaugural address, to which not a lisp, in the way of excep- 
tion was uttered in any quarter, and the liberal and impartial spirit 
in which I entered upon and continued the discharge ° of the duties 
of the chair, a liberality, in the sequel, admitted by all, constrained 
the leaders of the opposition to postpone, though obviously as it a 
peared to me, much against their individual wishes, the assaw 
upon me which were foreshadowed before my arrival and confid 
predicted on all sides. The mortification occasioned by this restr 
upon the gratification of long cherished anticipations, was, to 
mind, obviously increased by the social and seemingly friendly 
lations which had, at the period to which I am about to refer, spru 
up between most of the opposition Senators and myself, relati 
so inconsistent with the grave charges upon which the rejection of 
my nomination as Minister to England by the Senate had been justi- 
fied, and so well calculated to sanction the sentence of condemna 


° MS. VII, p. 45. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 749 


the people of the U. States had pronounced upon the treat- 
nent I had received. ' 
To this respectful, familiar and agreeable intercourse whenever 
met, whether whilst performing our respective duties in the 
te, or at social meetings elsewhere, and in which many co- 
operated, who I was well satisfied deprecated its existence, there were 
few minor, and two prominent exceptions, viz: Mr. Calhoun and 
ator Poindexter. In the account I have heretofore given of the 
political relations which, at different times, existed between Mr. 
Jalhoun and myself, I did not give as full an account of our per- 
al demeanour towards each other on the occasion of the breach 
in our friendly feelings which was made public in 1831, as may now 
_ Mr. Calhoun sent his letter, by which the personal and political 
riendship which had so long existed between General Jackson and 
h im elf was finally severed, at the close of the session of Congress of 
1829-30 , and soon thereafter left Washington for South Carolina. 
He did fat return to that city until late in the month of December 
thereafter and in the mean time we never met. It will be remem- 
bered that I declined to read the correspondence between the Gen- 
eral and himself before its publication, neither did I make any 
attempt to inform myself of its contents, or in any way become 
pe essed of them, until I read it in Mr. Calhoun’s pamphlet, on its 
erence at Washington in the latter part of February 1831. The 
act of its having been prepared became generally known at the 
at of Government, and speculation as to its character rife. He 
mitted it before publication, to many of his friends, and in that 
and probably in others, the impression became general that my 
uct, in some of the transactions referred to, was virtually im- 
ached. As Mr. Calhoun had made no complaints to me and 
nowing that there was not the slightest ground for any imputa- 
of that character, as Mr. Calhoun Ree at a subsequent 
el riod, virtually admitted, and as is now demonstrated in Mr. Par- 
on’s life of Jackson; and not thinking that the difficulties which 
ac arisen between him and the President furnished a sufficient 
sround for disturbing the courtesies which had before been inter- 
ged between the Vice-President and myself, an opinion, in which 
ident Jackson cordially concurred; I left my card for him as 
isual, he as Vice President, being by the etiquette of the place, enti- 
to that attention from the Secretary of State, and it was duly 


siprocated. An invitation to one of my weekly dinners followed of 
e. On the night preceding the appointed day there set in a 


orm of snow and wind of unprecedented severity in that region, 
nd I despatched my servant, early in the morning, with notes to 


1James M. Parton, Life of Andrew Jackson (N. Y. 1860). 


750 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


my intended guests, postponing the dinner from Saturday to the 
followmg Monday. In the course of Saturday I received from Mr. 
Calhoun, the following note: 

Mr. Calfioun regrets that owing to the state of the weather and a cold with 
which he is afflicted he can not dine with Mr. Van Buren to day. Saturday. 

The impression it made upon me at the moment, an impression 
which was I doubt not greatly strengthened by other circumstances 
which have now passed from my mind, was, that he was embarrassed 
by my invitation, and had gladly availed himself of the state of the 
weather to avoid placing himself in a position which was incon- 
sistent with the hostile attitude he would be obliged to assume to- 
wards me, when his correspondence with the President was published. 

So regarding his note, and apprehending that I might in conse- 
quence of the renewal of my invitation, be regarded as having evinced 
too great a desire to conciliate him, I made the following endorse- 
ment upon the note: “ Not received when my note for Monday was 
sent,” and placed it upon my file, where is has remained for thirty 
years. Very unexpectedly to me Mr. Calhoun appeared on Monday 
among my guests, consisting of some thirty ladies and gentlemen, 
among whom were, besides himself, the Speaker of the House of 
Representatives and his lady, and Senator Grundy and his lady. 
The latter gentleman, as it subsequently appeared, being at that mo- 
ment, but without my being aware of it, one of Mr. Calhoun’s con- 
fidential advisers as to the disposition that should be made of the 
correspondence, had, I now believe exerted a controlling influence 
over his action in respect to the dinner. The company was not only 
numerous and brilliant, but, with the exception of Mr. Calhoun, lively 
and jocular. His demeanor on the contrary, though highly respect- 
ful, was throughout obviously constrained. He, at my request, took 
Mrs. Grundy in to dinner and placed her between him and myself 
In the course of a long dinner, I made several unsuccessful attempts 
to restore him to his usual vivacity and to a participation in the co 
versation of the table, a thing I never before knew him to omit, b 
he continued in the mood he assumed upon his entrance and retired 
soon after the company had returned to the drawing room; leaving 
me thoroughly convinced of the correctness of the construction q 
had placed upon his note, and satisfied that the character of our 
future relations would, so far at least as he was concerned, be mainly 
dependent upon the suppression or publication of the corresponden 
which had taken place between him and the President; not then s 
pecting that a qualified publication was under consideration. If t 
first course was pursued and really amicable relations between hi 
and the President restored, there would not, I supposed, be a desit 
for an open rupture with me. It was well known at the time that an 
active discussion was going on between Mr. Calhoun and the more 


"e 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 751 


ite of his friends on the subject of its suppression. Senator 
informed the President that he had warned Mr. Calhoun that 
lication of the correspondence would be his destruction, and 
conjured him to commit it to the flames. The latter gentleman, 
ly thought differently, but anticipated a signal triumph, and we 
B1 cies that they ever prevailed on him to go farther in that 
tior eee consent, which he did, that his friends might make 
to reconcile the President to its appearance, by such modi- 
n of it and explanation of what he should farther say as would 
ficient to effect that object, without lessening the injurious 
s of the correspondence upon myself. To this was added, 
h the same instrumentality, an effort to prevail upon the editor 
» Globe to publish Mr. Calhoun’s appeal first, and accompany 
a favorable comments. As we have already seen, an intrigue 
ex asequently set on foot by my subsequent friend Grundy to 
- plish the first of these objects through their friend, Major 
a, and by the same gentleman and Col. Johnson, who was every- 
Ms friend, to obtain Mr. Blair’s consent to the latter, the failure 
th of which has also been seen. Mr. Blair refused altogether, 
Mr. Grundy thought he had succeeded upon the first and prin- 
al point. The correspondence was published and Mr. Calhoun’s 
cess m political life forever destroyed. That the President dis- 
med the encouragement which had been given by Major Eaton, 
i indignantly resented the attempt that had been set on foot to use 
: = the destruction of his friend, has also been already stated. 
immediately after the failure of the Grundy and Eaton negotia- 
t and on the appearance of the Globe which announced the Gen- 
'S feelings in the matter, I was favored with a visit from Dr. 
hes, a devoted and very active friend of Mr. Calhoun, who was 
a followed by Mr. Blair at the Doctor's instance: the object of 
r joint appearance being to afford the latter an opportunity to 
lonstrate, in my presence, against the course which the Globe 
: taking. The Doctor’s desire was to arrest and suppress the 
war, which had that morning been commenced; which he 
med the power of doing on Mr. Calhoun’s side, if the President 
myself would prevail upon our friends to do the same on ours. 
ceiving that he was not advancing his object, by the explana- 
eal of Mr. Calhoun’s course and the excuses-he founded 
Ethean, as these were readily, and, as it appeared to nie, con- 
rely overthrown by Mr. Blair, he at length directed his obser- 
lions to the injurious consequences which would result to the 
. eed to all belonging to it from the schism, which he charged 
; 2 . Blair’s course was producing. After dwelling at great 
th, and with an earnestness that was almost amusing upon the 


1 George M. Bibb, of Kentucky. 


752 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. _ 


disasters which the distraction and consequent overthrow of th 
party would entail on all of its supporters, and misled by Blair’s 
serious countenance, he ventured to draw his attention to his fare 
own case, spoke of thie press which he had recently established, of i 
prospects and of the fortune he might reasonably expect to reap 
from it, and of its probable failure, if the schism, he so earnest! 
dreaded was not arrested, and the ruin in which nes and his famill y 
would be involved, &c. When he closed his remarks, Mr. Blair 
assented to the nea occurrence of some of the consequences ~ 
Dr. had depicted as results of a continuance of the war, said h 
would be as sorry as the Dr. if it should turn out so, but thate he 
could not alter the course upon which he had entered. He was 
fully satisfied that Mr. Calhoun was not only at the bottom of all the 
difficulties that had arisen but had voluntarily produced them to 
promote his own ends, that he had commenced the war by his 
pamphlet, without good cause, and must abide the consequences 
and in the conclusion of a brief and obviously sincere speech 
thanked the Dr. for the sympathy he had expressed for the 
which the struggle might entail upon him; but begged the Dr. 
give° himself no uneasiness on that account. It was true, he “7 
that he was poor, but he had long been so and never expected to b 
otherwise, that he nevertheless felt himself to be independent < 3 
his wants were few, and if the ruin overtook him, to which th 
Dr. alluded, he pole “live by his rifle,” and would lave nothin a ti 
do but go back to old Kentucky, where he knew he could alway 
find plenty of employment for it; and enjoy greater and moi 
lasting satisfaction than he could derive from making himself sul 
servient, in any form, to the promotion of Mr. Calhoun’s ambition 
“schemes. 

The Dr. was a cripple, walked seldom and with a sort of dot and ¢ 
one motion, which, far from graceful when he was at his ease, be 
absolutely ludicrous when he was excited or hurried. Deeply di 
gusted with the mode of obtaining his living, to which Blair hi 
shewn himself willing to resort, greatly irritated to madness b 
obstinacy, and seeing moreover that the game was up, the Dr. 
nantly ieaped from his chair and limped towanaa the door, excla: 
as he made his exit, at the top of his voice, “ Well, by G—d, I 
live by my rifle.” a 

Whilst the fate of the correspondence, of the contents of whi¢ 
although the information was within my reach, I knew as li 
anyone in Washington, was in suspense, it was made my 
well by the rumors that were afloat, as by. what had taken place 
and in respect to my dinner, to see that my personal relations wi 
Mr. Calhoun were kept on a footing that would suit any conti 


° MS, VII, p. 50. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 753 


that might happen. We were together, a few days after the dinner, 
t a meeting of the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund, of which his 
friend, Mr. Ingham, the Secretary of the Treasury, and Chief Jus- 
tice Marshall were members and present. We shook hands respect- 
fully but in our intercourse there was, on his part, a greater formality 
even than that which was observed on the former occasion, which I 
attributed to the presence of the latter gentleman and a design to give 
to our personal relations an appearance wLich would be in harmony 
with the character the Chief Justice, who though a gentleman of quiet 
manners generally understood whatever passed about him, supposed 
them to bear. 
_ After these occurrences, I felt myself justified in insisting that the 
first advance towards the continuance of social intercourse between 
us should proceed from him; and I determined to embrace the first 
fitting opportunity to drive him to the necessity of deciding that point 
himself. A suitable occasion for carrying this resolution into effect 
was afforded me, some time, probably a week or so, before his publica- 
ion, at a party given by the French Minister. I perceived, on enter- 
ing the principal room, that Mr. Calhoun was standing near the center 
f it, with Mrs. [Samuel] Harrison Smith, an old confederate of my 
own in the Crawford war, but now a friend of his, leaning on his arm. 
When I reached them, in taking the circuit of the room, I addressed 
Mrs. Smith familiarly, then looked Mr. Calhoun fully in the face, 
respectfully, but without extending to him the ordinary salutation — 
i ceremony, which would, under ordinary circumstances, have been 
due to his rank, but was withheld upon the grounds I have stated. 
de looked me also full in the face, but made no motion, nor did he say 
anything. I gave to my countenance no expression, nor was there 
anything in my demeanor that was not respectful, and his was the 
same in both respects. It seemed to me that he understood what I 
eant, and that was all I desired. I continued my conversation a 
ew minutes with the lady, when bowing to her I proceeded on. An 
ntimacy of long standing, and at times very close, was thus quietly 
roken off—a proceeding, which left nothing further for us to do, in 
lat regard, when his pamphlet appeared. I do not recollect to have 
eard of a single disrespectful remark made by him of me, during the 
ag estrangement that ensued, and I endeavored to observe the same 
eserve in respect to him. When we met we took no notice of each 
er, with the exception of a single occasion, which will be referred 
, when, under very peculiar circumstances, he literally gazed at me 
3 amoment or two. Such continued to be the character of our per- 
mal relations until 1837, a period of more than six years when he, as 
s been elsewhere stated. of his own accord, tendered, and I accepted, 
€ resumption of friendly intercourse between us. 


t27453°-—voL 2—90—_48 


CHAPTER XLVII. 


It so happened that my personal relations with Senator Poindex- 
ter, were, from the first, of an arms length character. I need not, I 
am sure, say to any of my acquaintances, whether they have ranked 
among my friends or my opponents, how greatly such a state of 
things was at variance with the general tenor of my feelings in sue 
matters. 

He had justly acquired very considerable distinction by his sup- 
port of General Jackson in the great debate in the House of Rep- 
resentatives, in which the conduct of the latter in the Seminole war, 
was sought to be deeply implicated; and had now been elected a 
Senator of the United States by the General’s friends and support- 
ers in the State of Mississippi. He presented himself at Washing- 
ton for the first time, in that capacity, a few days before the session 
of 1830-31, drove to the White House in a coach drawn by four 
cream colored horses, and was announced to the President whilst he 
and myself (I then being Secretary of State) were engaged on 
business in the President’s office. We repaired at once to the Draw- 
ing room, where he was received by the General with cordiality and 
respect. Having never met him before, I was introduced and a long 
and sprightly conversation ensued, which was chiefly confined to the 
President and his visitor. In the course of it, old times and scene 
were, in succession introduced by the latter and freely spoken of 
whilst the exciting political questions of the day were, as it appearet 


enough, having regard to the nature of the President’s relatior on 
with that gentleman, Mr. Clay’s sayings and doings constituted ¢ th 
principal theme. The conversation received that direction fror 
the Senator, who introduced and dwelt on the positions which 
and Mr. Clay occupied towards each other, and the stirring se 
which had occurred between them, more particularly in the spor 
way, at different periods of their busy lives. On the latter hea 
gave us the particulars of a famous brag party, at which Mr. C 
stung to madness by his losses, had bragged him, against a n: 
sum, his Hotel establishment at Cincinnati—an estate of ¢ 


which could not fail to win, that of two aces and a bragger, and his 
the oldest hand, which he laid down on the table at the moment 
754 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 755 


refusal. Mr. Clay, he said, had often told him, that he was the only 
man who had ever had him in his power. I remember these particu- 
lars the more distinctly, from the effects produced on my northern 
ears by this revelation of the enormous sums of money which were 
lost and won between them. To the General’s they did not, it must 
be admitted, produce equally astounding effects; but were listened 
as Poindexter knew they would be, as racy reminiscences of some- 
at similar scenes through which he had himself passed, at an 
ly period, on the famous “Clover bottom race course” between 
m and his life long competitors in all things, the McNairys, the 
rvings and the Cannons—cum muitis aliis, in the progress of 
which land patents and class rights in bundles, and horse flesh by 
droves had been staked on their respective racing steeds in which 
the General had generally been the favorite of fortune. 
_ Suspicions unfavorable to Mr. Poindexter’s fidelity to the admin- 
istration he had been elected to sustain were already extensively 
mtertained in political circles. With me, at least, they lost none 
of their force from a personal acquaintance. The remarkably sin- 
ister expression of his countenance, a point, in respect to which, 
there was no room for two opinions, and his whole demeanor at our 
irst interview, coming on the back of the invariably unfavorable 
reports I had received of his character, differing only in the degree 
yf odium that was heaped upon it, satisfied me of his hostility, and 
hat this formal visit was one of exploration only. The President 
ompanied him to his carriage, but hastened back after he 
90k his departure, with the question, “Well, what is your opinion 
f Poindexter?” My conviction of his hostility and the certainty 
that he would soon be found in the ranks of the opposition, were 
f course freely expressed; to which the reply was “ You are cer- 
fainly right. We are not to his taste, and it will be thought no dis- 
redit to us that such is the case, but we will soon shew him that we 
can do without him.” 
Had this interview taken place shortly after the Seminole debate, 
s result might have been different, for as I have elsewhere said, 
e seldom known a man, who was seemingly more blind to the 
ts, and indulgent to the short comings of friends who had stood 
im. in a crisis and whom he believed to be honest, than General 
kson ; and their concurrence in opinion with him on such ocasions 
far to satisfy him that they were so. But many years had 
ed away since those exciting scenes, and he had in the interim 
ed, as he thought, sufficient opportunities to become well ac- 
ed with Mr. Poindexter’s real character, and we both looked 
] his open junction with the opponents of the administration as 
estion of time only. 


= vin — 


756 AMERICAN HISTORICAL” ASSOCIATION. 


After a month or two of brisk fighting, which, however well it may 
have been calculated to mystify his constituents did not, in the least, 
obscure the clear conception we had formed of his designs, and before ° 
the close of his first session, he threw off the mask and took open 
ground against the administration by aiding Messrs. Calhoun, Taze- 
well and Tyler in their attempts to fix upon the President the impu- 
tation of having been guilty “of a manifest violation of the rights of 
the Senate, a flagrant usurpation of their constitutional powers and 
a gross violation of the Constitution,” in the negotiation of the Treaty 
with the Sublime Porte, a matter which has been heretofore spoken of. 

Agreeable, as this assault was to the Mississippi Senator, whose 
belligerent spirit panted for active service, it did not afford him half 
the satisfaction which he hoped to reap from the action of the Senate 
upon my nomination as Minister to England. There were features 
in the latter proceeding, such, for instance, as the opening it would 
afford for assaults upon the personal and private character of his 
intended victim, which rendered it a far more acceptable service te 
his accusatory and aggressive spirit, the indulgence of which, all wh« 
were acquainted with him knew to be the ruling passion of his soul, 
The scope for that indulgence was materially enlarged by the shame= 
ful abandonment by Holmes, of Maine, of the resolution he had offered 
for the appointment of a committee of investigation, on which the 
majority of the Senate would have found itself constrained to place, 
at least one sincere friend, through whose agency the machinations 
and practices of the chairman and his associates might have beet 
detected and exposed—an abandonment, accompanied by an express 
and unblushing reservation to each Senator to supply his green bag 
with such bits of scandal for exhibition in secret session, as it migh 
be consistent with his individual taste to gather from sources of hi 
own selection. 

The action of the Senate was postponed for several weeks on a 
count of Mr. Poindexter’s inability, from sickness, to attend its meé 
ings; not because the majority stood in need of his vote for as has 
already been stated, they had a convenient supernumary in the per 
son of Senator Bibb, who agreed to be within call, if he should be 
wanted to make a tie and thus compel the Vice President to perform 
his part of the agreement, which the Senator was to do by voting 
for, or against my confirmation, as the occasion might require. The 
postponement was in deference to the excess of his zeal and the ex 
tent of the contributions he was expected to make to the mass of accu- 
sations that were to be presented against the nominee. . 

According to his own account, he was, when his speech was mad 
still too feeble to stand continuously during its delivery; but 


° MS. VII, p. 55, 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 757 


ft 
of 


budget of calumnies which he in conclave poured upon the ears of 
the Senators disclosed the extent to which the invalid had notwith- 
ste nding explored the kennels and ransacked the gossiping circles 
of the capital for defamatory reports; the whole being wound up 
with a letter addressed to himself by a man, whom I was not con- 
scious of ever having known, setting forth a statement, supposed to 
have been made to him by me of the motives by which I had been gov- 
erned in bringing about the dissolution of the Cabinet, which every 
one acquainted with me, whether friend or opponent, was ready to 
pronounce unmitigated falsehoods. By the side of the sayings and 
doings of this veteran combatant, it mortified me to find displayed 
n the journals exhibitions of illiberality and injustice not far behind 
his own on the part of a clever young southern Senator, whom I 
once held in high estimation, but who sunk himself for the occasion 
in the pursuit of vengeance for imaginary intrigues, which his leader, 
Mr. Calhoun, the party to be injured by them, subsequently nailed to 
the counter as unfounded suspicions. 
_ The conduct of the first named Senator, bad as it was, had but 
little effect upon our personal relations, on account of pre-existing 
barriers to anything like friendly or social intercourse between us. 
Once only, during our whole acquaintance, did he, to my surprise, 
approach me with friendly greetings. 
_A violent altercation had taken place, on the floor of the Senate, 
between him and my friend Forsyth; which it was for a while sup- 
posed would lead to a hostile meeting—a matter about which, as 
was well known, no one could have been more solicitous than myself. 
The morning after that result had been avoided, he saluted me, on 
entrance, with much cordiality. Nothing was on my part want- 
ing in the reception of his civility, for I felt relieved and happy, 
but there the matter ended. We passed through the panic session, 
“an which he was the busiest of the busy, and probably had more to 
“do with the chair than any other Senator, with the same unvarying 
Figidity of countenance on both sides that had, with the single ex- 
seption referred to, distinguished our personal intercourse from the 
beginning, and what was really miraculous, without his finding a 
ingle occasion to complain of the treatment he received at my hands 
is presiding officer of the body. But the panic session had scarcely 
passed away before the party, to which Mr. Poindexter had attached 
himself, became sensible of the popularity I had acquired by the 
fearless and faithful discharge of my delicate and difficult duties at 
hat trying period, as well as apprehensive of the political conse- 
quences to which it might lead. Senator Poindexter was not an 
) indifferent or inattentive observer of the signs of the times, nor a 


my 


a 


ee 
eae 
758 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, Joes i 


q 


sluggard in devising means to obstruct the way of political opponents 
whom he hated and whose advancement he deprecated, both of which 
was emphatically the case in respect to myself. The frustration in 
Congress of the elaborate and artfully devised plans of the bank 
and its confederates, the leaders of the opposition, aggravated as 
they were, by the signal success of the administration at the suc- 
ceeding election with the obvious impracticability of every attempt 
to reexcite the public mind through the agency of new public ques- 
tions in season for the approaching session of Congress, the only 
one to be held before the Presidential election, cast a gloom over 
their prospects and caused unusual despondency in their ranks. 
Poindexter, generally among the foremost and seemingly the most 
fearless in partisan fights was among the first to feel the influence 
of the re-acting panic, and to see the necessity of a change of tactics. 
His confidence in all efforts to cripple an opponent or overthrow an 
administration that were unaccompanied by personal broils, was 
habitually slight. The reader has already been supplied with a 
striking exhibition of [his] preference for and adaptation to that 
feature in partisan warfare in his very gross assault upon Daniel 
Webster, when that gentleman ventured to assume a different posi- 
tion from that occupied by the chosen leader of his party on the 
passage of the force bill in nullification-times; an assault which ¥ 
not only unprovoked but obviously made upon calculation ind ta 
answer a political purpose. Senator Poindexter’s plan for re 
kindling the public mind and dispelling the prevailing apathy iz 
their party, therefore, was to lay aside for a season their threadbare 
denunciations of General Jackson, by the hackneyed use of whic 
the public taste had been annoyed and its judgment insulted, and ge 
up a sort of semi-oflicial quarrel with me, the probable democrat 
candidate for the presidency; a quarter more likely, perhaps, to h 
effectual, and to try to work it into a personal fracas at the capital o 
the union. This naturally struck him as a proceeding more likely t 
produce distrust, an indispensable element to their success, and giv 
animation to the approaching session than any scheme that could u un 
der existing circumstances be devised. That he attempted to ¢ e 
me into such an affair, and that he consulted more than one of hi 
brother Senators in respect to its expediency, I did not, at the tir 
entertain a particle of doubt. I received from a reliable sour 
early inklings of what was in the wind, of the source from whic 
the attack was to proceed, and of its prubata abettors. 4 

Thus forewarned, I possessed fair opportunities, from what 1 ws 
daily passing before my eyes, to identify, in my own estimation ¢ 
least, the Senators by whom the step was probably favoured; a 


= AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUEEN. 759 


1 down upon two gentlemen who had probably been 
least from the beginning by the principal actor. But 
ere but suspicions, without anything that deserved the name 
of to sustain them, and therefore, though effective upon 
amd, it would be wrong in me to give names. I there 
nt myself with saying that Mr. Clay was not one of them, 
39 as well because I sincerely believed him as well as the 
of the Senate to have been altogether above countenancing 
proceeding as on account of his well known inflmence over 
ter, which might otherwise give rise to the impression that 

who are conversant with the political history of that period 
smber the violent assault Mr. Clay made upon me at the 
ent of the session, on account of my non-appearance at 
acement to organise the body; or how earnestly my prede- 
. Calhoun, denied the fact set up by my friends in explana- 
absence, viz: that it has been the practice of the Vice Presi- 
avoid so early an attendance, to give the Senate an oppor- 
hoose their standing committees before his arrival, a selee- 
if present, it would have been his duty to make himself. 
present session I was at my post on the first day and strange 
that very fact was seized upon by my opponents and made 

ale pretext for opening with me a correspondence, virtually 
E its commencement, and designed to become more so as it 
=sed. On the 5th of January, when the lapse of time and the 
rrence of circumstances, had rendered the moment for the dé 
men £ of the plot as favourable as they could expect it to become, 
eived from Senator Poindexter the following letter: 


WASHINGTON crrr, Jan” 5th 1835. 


Me wl punctuelity, with which you attended, as the Presiding officer 
ES » at the commencement of the present session of Congress, has 
a ted by certain newspapers edited by your friends and supporters, 
siderations haying a direct personal relation to myself. 
novation on the uniform practice of your predecessors would have 
> attention from me, as it was an act resting exclusively on your own 
3 € propriety. and therefore wholly unimportant in reference either to my 
S panes. had it not, vauntingly, been put forth by presses under your 
h explanations well calculated to attract my notice, and doubtless 
9 make impressions incompatible with my honor. I refer especially 
in the Newburg Telegraph, which has been copied into other 
S and eannot have escaped your observation - 
esident of the Senate was in his chair at the opening of the session and 
ced it from being @isgraced by “° that bloated mass of corruption— 


° MS. VIE, pm 6& 


>¥ 
760 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 4 


eens 


I have waited a reasonable length of time, to afford you, or your friends an 
opportunity to disavow the foul motive attributed to you in the paragraph — 
above quoted; none has been made—altho explicitly called for in one of the 
public journals of this city. I desire to be distinctly understood as not in- 
tending to claim the right to hold you answerable for this offensive article, or 
any other of like character which may have appeared, but the noyel and 
extraordinary circumstances attending this whole matter, authorizes me to ask — 
of you, that which is due to me—and to the station which you. oceupy—a dis- 
avowal of all connection between your conduct on the occasion and the relations 
in which I stand to the Senate, and to the country. I will not permit myself 
to believe that in taking your seat at the opening of the session, you were actu- 
ated by the unworthy motives, which your friends have so indiscreetly attributed 
to you, until you manifest a disposition to place yourself in that attitude. I 
should much prefer for your own sake, and that of the august body over whose 
deliberations you have been called to preside, to regard your early attendance as — 
an evidence of the promptitude and industry, with which you were anxious to | 
discharge your public duties. It is now in your power, to give me this assurance — 
which I consider absolutely necessary to avert the consequences of an opposite 
conclusion. ; 

I address you thro’ the Post Office, not wishing to consult anyone in this 
affair, in the present doubtful state of my mind concerning it. 

I have the honor to be, Sir, Yr Obt. Servt 


Gro. PorInDEXxTER.* 

It came to my hands as I was leaving the Capitol, and was read 
in the carriage on my way home. Its construction and everything © 
connected with it satisfied me that its design was to accomplish the 
object I have described. I called at the State Department on my 
way down and shewed it to my friend Mr. Forsyth, who at the 
instant concurred in the construction I have placed upon it—an 
opinion, in which no one, acquainted with the writer and the state of - 
feeling then existing between the opposing parties at Washington, 
could not fail to concur. 

A second perusal on reaching my house, confirmed me in this view 
of the Senator’s epistle, and at the same time satisfied me that in 
this, as is apt to be the fate of similar feats of left-handed wisdom, 
the very cunning employed in its construction, supplied me with ade- 
quate means to frustrate its design. Nothing was wanting beyoné¢ 
the studied protests, concessions and reservations which had bee 
inserted in the letter for subsequent use; and his appeal to our official 
relations for protection against the assault that had been made upon 
him, to enable me not only to discharge my whole duty in the matter 
“Stee the slightest sacrifice of personal or official dignity, but to 
do that in a way, which would not only leave him without cause of 
complaint that his questions had not been fully answered, but render 
it in the last degree undesirable on his part to place my letter in 
juxta-position with his own before the country. 


1 Van Buren Papers. 


~ 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN, 761 


The following short letter was therefore, forthwith prepared and 
er receiving the approval of my friends General Jackson, Mr. 
wth and Mr. Wright, sent the next morning through the Post 


CO? 
ig 


WaAsHINGTON Jan’ 6th, 1835. 
‘ou are quite correct in not permitting yourself to believe that the official 
to which you allude, in your letter of yesterday, was designed to arrogate 
myself the right of deciding upon the propriety of the Senate’s choice of 
sir President pro tempore, or to interfere with the relations in which you 
al ny other member, may stand to that body, and to the country. 

Your very proper and explicit disclaimer of all idea of holding me responsi- 
s for the commentaries or constructions of the public press has enabled me 
far to respect the official relations existing between us, and to which you 
fer, as to give you this answer. 

I am Sir, your humble servt. 

M. Van Buren. 

> the Hon”'* Grorce PornpEXTER.* 


I might, perhaps ought to dismiss the subject here; but as there 
another matter which grew out of it and not destitute of interest, 
s descriptive of the character of the times, I will briefly notice it. 
yat my adversary would be embarrassed in respect to his farther 
ovements, by the character of my reply was what I confidently 
aticipated. A quiet publication of the correspondence, indicative 
f satisfaction with my reply, was a result I did not expect. Such 
course would, I thought, be inconsistent with the opinion I had 
wmed of his character and the design in which his letter originated. 
5 on the contrary, led by these considerations to look for a 
ublication, accompanied by offensive comments, opening new issues 
alculated to increase existing irritation. That he would suppress 
both letters, and leave the public to draw the inference that I had 
netioned the publications in question, an inference he so sorely 
sprecated and which he claimed would be the certain consequence 
F my silence, was a result which neither my friends nor myself 
lowed ourselves to expect, especially after the appearance of an 
timation of the existence of such a correspondence had appeared 
‘a paper hostile to me. These views led to the suspicion that the 
tor, after what had been done, might think a parol altercation 
1 me, a more eligible way of bringing about the fracas upon 
hich we believed him to be bent, and consequently to a considera- 
m of the expediency of placing myself in a situation to prevent 
the instant any hostile attempt that might be made upon my 
rson. I therefore, for the first and only time in my life, placed 
out my person, a pair of loaded pistols, of a size which I could 


2Van Buren Papers. 


‘e 


>." a 


é 1 ee. 
: Se 
762 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIO: Ns 


carry without danger of exposure, and wore them in the chai 
out of it, until I became fully satisfied that my adversary had mad 
up his mind to drop the whole matter where my answer had left it 
and neither to say, nor to do, nor to publish anything further upor 
the subject. Those of my friends, who were conversant with what 
had been done, and who took a special interest in the matter on n 
account, looked to the papers from day to day for the corresp 

ence, and were not less surprised than myself that a gun, which hac 
been so carefully, and I may add, so ceremoniously loaded, shoule 
have been so soon and so quietly spiked. My own opinion has’ 
ways been, that Mr. Clay was consulted on the receipt of my | ter 
that he pronounced the movement to have been, to say the least o: 
it, an unwise one from the beginning, predicted that it would grow 
worse, the further it was pushed, and advised Mr. Poindexter t 
drop it where it stood. At all events, so it was, that the affair was 
never again alluded to, in any way that has come to my knowledge. 


CHAPTER XLVIII. 

_ These two Senators constituted the principal exceptions to the social 
and seemingly amicable relations which had sprung up between the op- 
position Senators and myself, notwithstanding the adverse circum- 
stances under which we met. Yet, it is doing no injustice to the prin- 
cipal leaders of the opposition in that body, nor to most of the mem- 
bers of the second class who though not regarded as leaders were yet 
men of great experience and distinguished ability to say that they 
were all the while lying in wait, nay pining,*for the performance on 
my part, of some act by which they might be enabled to qualify, if 
they could not reverse, the vantage ground I had acquired through the 
action of the people upon the course they had pursued towards me, 
an advantage of which my quiet bearing at the head of the Senate, 
presented a daily, and to most of them, a very grating memento. I 
had passed through the ordeal of my inaugural address, an affair, 
which under existing circumstances, could hardly have been expected 
to pass off without giving offense in any quarter, to the fifteenth week 
‘of the session without the happening of any such occurrence. 

Now, however, the hoped for transaction was believed to be on the 
point of being perpetrated. Thestraight forward and sturdy Democ- 
racy of old York county Pennsylvania having had their feelings 
greatly excited by the controversy which the bank and its leading 
‘supporters had waged against President Jackson, in respect to the re- 
oval of the deposits held their meeting also, and headed by their 
undaunted former representative, Adam King ° adopteda memorial to 
Congress on that stirring subject. They condemned in no very meas- 
ured terms, the conduct of a majority of the Senate, denounced the 
Motives by which they believed their leaders to be actuated and 
plainly imputed venality to Senator Webster by name. This paper 
they, for reasons of their own, resolved should be sent to me its pre- 
siding officer for presentation to the Senate. One of their Senators 
Mr. McKean,! an honest, but exceedingly prejudiced man, had with- 
out cause, though he doubtless thought otherwise, made himself one 
of my bitterest enemies, and Mr. Wilkins? his colleague, the liberality 
and gentleness of whose bearing had secured for him the esteem of-all 
who knew him, had permitted his name, wrongfully, as the people 
of York thought, to be used to prevent my nomination as the candi- 


°MS. VII, p. 65. 2 William Wilkins. 1 Samuel McKean. 
763 


764 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


date of our party for the Vice-Presidency. How far these circum- 
stances influenced the course the meeting pursued in regard to the 
presentation of their memorial, I do not know, but I thought it not 
unlikely that those circumstances, aided probably, by a not unnatural, 
but very erroneous supposition that I would be pleased with the un- 
usual notoriety thus given to a denunciation of the former proceed- 
ings of the Senate against me from a quarter so imposing, as well in 
the revolutionary as political history of the country as old York, had 
exerted some influence on the course that was pursued. Similan 
views of the matter, I was in the sequel forced to conclude, had 
led Mr. Webster and his co-adjutors of the Senate to think I was 
advised of the proceeding, and would take pleasure in presenting 
them. ‘So wide a departure from the comity due from me to the 
members of a body, the presidency over which had been conferred 
upon me without their agency, and to which I was not responsible 
for my conduct, would have presented my enemies, for such they 
really were, a most desirable opportunity for their first attack. Their 
leaders, apprised by letter of what had taken place at York, of which 
I was myself wholly uninformed, entertaining the views in regard 
to my course, which I have attributed to them, determined in ad- 
vance, as I had reason to believe, to make the presentation of that 
memorial, the occasion for their long premeditated assault. That 
Mr. Webster should, on the first presentation of the subject, have 
made himself officious in the movement, was perhaps natural enough, 
but that he should have continued to do so after he became ac- 
quainted with my feelings upon the subject will not, it is believed, be 
approved by fair minded men. A full account of what was done at 
the meeting was sent to him by his friends; but the communication 
of the commitee, enclosing the memorial, did not reach me until three 
or four days after his letter was received. In the mean time he en- 
quired of me whether such memorial had come to my hands, and 
was informed that it had not. The next morning the enquiry was 
repeated and the same answer returned; and he, at the same time, in- 
formed that my mail was sometimes taken to my house, where the 
papers and letters were liable to be mislaid, that such might have beet 
the case with the communication in question, that I would cause a 
search to be made and inform him of the result in the morning, which 
was, that no such memorial had yet been received. 
That evening the letter containing it arrived, when, influenced by 
Mr. Webster’s repeated enquiries, . I foniaee read the memorial 
and discovered, as I supposed, the cause of his solicitude. Although 
not precise, the memorial, or rather the preamble to it, contained a 
paragraph which was peeardell by his friends as quite a direct 
charge against him of being bribed by Ws bank. 


j AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 765 


I decided, at once, that it was a paper which ought not to be 
communicated to the Senate through me; and that I would write 
to that effect, to the Committee, by whom it had been sent. On my 
way to the Capitol, I fell in with my friend, Senator Wright and 
related to him the circumstance. He informed me, as he afterwards 
‘stated on the floor of the ‘Senate, that a memorial had, some days 
before, been sent from our State, to an opposition Senator for pre- 
sentation, reflecting severely upon him (Mr. W.), that the Senator 
had informed him that he had on that account refused to present 
it, unless, one of our representatives, also of the opposition, who 
lived in the vicinity of the memorialists, should feel himself at lib- 
erty to strike out the objectionable paragraph, which was done, and 
‘the memorial in that state presented to the Senate and referred. 
This statement, suggested to me the propriety of submitting the 
York memorial to the Pennsylvania Senators, with a similar expla- 
nation, before I returned it to the committee, by whom it had been 
‘forwarded to me. Mr. Webster approached me, as I entered the 
‘Senate chamber, with an enquiring look, and was informed of the 
‘receipt of the memorial,—that I had read it and deemed it unfit 
‘to be presented to the Senate, on account of a paragraph it con- 
tained in relation to himself—and of my determination to submit it 
‘to the Pennsylvania Senators with an explanation of my intentions 
to return it, unless they felt themselves authorised te strike out the 
. objectionable paragraph. To my amazement, instead of expressing 
his satisfaction at the view I had taken of the matter, Mr. Webster 
appeared disconcerted, seemed perplexed and acted as if what I had 
communicated would interfere with some favored scheme—hemmed, 
hawed, muttered gutteral intonations, without expressing a single 
intelligible idea and left me for his seat. I was, for a moment, 
confounded by a result so unexpected ; but soon the use which he and 
his confederates had intended to make of the York memorial, if I 
had presented it, flashed across my mind and I became re-composed. 
I called Senator Wilkins to me, gave him the memorial, pointed out 
the objectionable paragraph, informed him of the determination I 
had formed, desired him to consult his colleagues as to what they 
ought to do, but to understand for himself, and to say to his col- 
leagues particularly, that I expressed no opinion in regard to their 
rights or duties in the matter. Thus forewarned, I took the chair, 
confident that I should, in due time, be able to possess myself of the 
details of the plot, and considering that as I had neither done nor 
meant to do anything that was wrong, I felt no apprehension in 
gard to my ability to counteract their hostile views. 
A memorial from the people of Shenandoah in Virginia, one of 
‘the counties which compose what is called, the 10th legion, in favor 


oe 


5 - £: Agee 
766 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, Teer 


of the removal of the deposits, was immediately presented, and 
called forth a characteristic speech from their Senator Tyler; of 
whose course-they disapproved. if 

Whilst this was being made, Mr. Wilkins had time to consult his 
colleagues, and deposited the memorial on my desk, without saying 
anything, but with the paragraph impeaching the conduct of Web- 
ster stricken out. 

When I announced the title of the York memorial, the opposition 
members of the Senate pricked up their ears in a way which satis- 
fied me it was a document, of which they had heard before. Mr. 
Wilkins moved that it be read, printed and referred to the Commit- 
tee on Finance. When it was read, disappointment at the absence 
of the attack upon Webster was, as I thought, equally apparent. 
Mr. Webster immediately took the floor, assumed a nonchalant air, 
spoke of the imputations cast upon him by the memorial as “ puerili- 
ties” which his friends were desirous should not be charged upon 
one of the greatest counties in Pennsylvania—said a friend had sent 
him a letter signed by several persons whom he described as highly 
respectable citizens, and called on Senator McKean to sustain him 
in saying they were such, which he did as to some, perhaps to most 
of them. Mr. Webster desired to have the letter read, and added that. 
af this was a specimen of the memorials which were to be presented 
in support of the Treasury measure, he thought they would require 
the particular attention of the Senate. Poindexter immediately fol- 
lowed in a fierce attack upon the memorial, insinuated that it had 
been gotten up in the purlieus of the palace, and sent to York county 
to be sent back here again—that for himself, he would not have 
presented such a paper. If it had been sent to him, he should haye 
sent it back to the person from whom it came, but he said not a 
word about the erasure that had been made on it. He was by far 
too active in gaining information on such occasions, before he spoke. 
not to know how and by whom, that erasure which he had examined 
critically before he rose, had been made. He did not wish to come 
in contact with the Pennsylvania Senators, particularly not with 
Mr. McKean, who he thought would, at least, sympathize with them 
in their attack. Senator Preston,? on the other hand, was pro- 
verbially slow in such matters. He and his colleague, Mr. Calhoun, 
then occupied front seats, side by side, and directly below the chair; 
whilst Mr. Wilkins’ seat was in the rear. Preston, having read and 
examined the memorial at the clerk’s desk, which was before hi n. 
said he desired to be informed how this paper got before the Sena es 
The Vice President replied that it had been transmitted to him, un- 


1 John Tyler. — Although against the removal of the deposits Tyler was opposed to the 
bank. e 


2? William C, Preston. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 767 


der cover of a letter, in which he was requested to lay the enclosure 
before the Senate and directed the letter to be read, which was done 
ecordingly. Mr. Preston who was obviously under the impression 
hat the erasure had been made by me, desired to make but a single 
smark. He was astonished at the presentation of this petition. He 
considered the right of petition to be a sacred right, and therefore to 
be protected against changing or remodelling of any petitions sent 
to the Senate for presentation. When the presiding officer, or any 
oficer of the Senate was in possession of documents to be submitted 
to° the Senate, he should not be permitted, with his assent, to erase 
or multilate them. This is all he is reported to have said. . In these 
observations he was, beyond all doubt, under the full belief that the ° 
alteration in the memorial, was my act; and was probably intended to 
se a as a prelude to some such attention on the part of the Senate, 
; that which had been forshadowed by Webster in his opening 
speech, though that suggestion had doubtless been framed with 
reference to ae state of things. If Mr. Webster had not been 
deprived, by the course I pursued, of his foundation facts, he would 
have been ready with his resolution of censure. But he-was too _ 
cunning to commit himself to such a movement on such shallow pre- 
tenses, as those advanced by the former. He stood ready to support 
him by side wind blows, as he did to the end, and Mr. Clay for a 
while; but both of them kept themselves clear of any such commit- 
sks 
_ Years had Eee since Mr. Calhoun’s eyes and mine had de- 
liberately rested upon each other. Assuming that he thought as 
Preston did in regard to the author of the erasure, and we, being only 
a few feet from each other, I eyed him attentively, and he gazed at 
Me in return, with a smile upon his countenance, which seemed abso- 
Jutely demoniac. It was one which conveyed the expression as plainly 
is words could have made it, “ We have you now.” From the bottom 
of my heart I pitied him. It was not in my nature to see a counte- 
nance, which I had so often looked upon with pleasure, so disfigured. 
My regret was perhaps less restrained, from knowing how soon his 
anguine, and obviously malevolent expectations were destined to be 
2 ily disappointed. 

Mr. Wilkins followed Preston. He had struggled for the floor 
before, but I had awarded it to Mr. Preston—a decision to which it 
‘as apparent that my friends demurred. Wilkins narrated all the 
circumstances correctly, including the communication I had made to 
lim; and assigned the reason upon which he and his colleagues had 
roceeded in striking out the paragraph to which I had objected—did 


° MS. VII, p. 70. 


768 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


full justice to the motives and also to the character and standing 


political and personal, of those who had taken part in its proceedings 

His statement removed, as well in point of fact as of principle 
every pretence of complaint of the agency that I had exercised ir 
the affair. Seeing that he had commenced his attack upon me under 
a mistaken view of the facts, Mr. Preston owed it to himself te 
have abandoned it, in the frank and manly manner and temper, In 
which he sometimes acted, and in which, as a general rule he pre- 
ferred to act. But the temptation to push on the assault was toc 
strong to be resisted by so unskilful a politician as Mr. Preston, 
He had just taken his seat, as the colleague of Mr. Calhoun, had been 
elected under the influence of those feelings of personal hostility 
against myself then common with a particular class of the public 
men of South Carolina, and was anxious to distinguish himself in 
the business of hunting down a man, whose political overthrow lay 
so near the hearts of many of her sons. He had been promised a 
field for the display of his talents in that direction on this occasion 
but the feast to which he had been invited, had fallen through in 
two important particulars—one before, and one after he had en- 
tered the arena. I had not presented the memorial in its objectiona 
ble shape, as was expected, nor had I made the erasure, upon which 
he seized in the first moments of his disappointment. Under these 
adverse circumstances, he was driven to carry on the war upon 
the grossly untenable and to the Senate itself, suicidal assumption, 
that when a paper was addressed to its President, with a request 
that it should be laid before the Senate, that paper became ipso facto 
the property of that body, and could not be withheld from its con 
sideration; and that, whilst every member, had a right to comply 
with a request to present it or refuse to do so, as he in his discretion 
should think to be most consistent with his duty to his constituents 
and the body to which he belonged, the President of the body pos- 
sessed no such discretion and was bound to present to them what 
ever was sent to him for that purpose however abusive of them of 
defamatory of himself; and that I had therefore committed a great 
offence in submitting a memorial of the citizens of Pennsylvani:z 
to the discretion of the Senators of that state, with the view and 
for the purposes which have been stated. Having taken that ground, 
he made in support of his proposition one of the ore rotund 
speeches, in which he called into action all the eloquence and declama- 
tion for which he was distinguished; but did not succeed in satis 
fying anybody else, nor, as it appeared to me, himself either, tha 
he had succeeded in proving anything beyond the extent of hi 
own zeal in the anti-administration and anti-Van Buren cause. But, 
it was not at the moment, nor has it ever been, clear to my mind 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 769 


lat there was, even then, in the breast of the Speaker any consid- 
rable share of personal hatred towards the principal subject of 
is vituperation. The Prestons are a peculiar race. Having a large 
jare of the bulldog spirit in their composition, they never fail to 
hew it under excitement; but they are at the same time not less 
yaringly endowed with the generous impulses of that noble mastiff 
hich seldom fail to show themselves when their passions are at 
I have witnessed the action of these varying dispositions in 
ie subject of my remark on more than one occasion. In this very 
jatter, when the subject came again before the Senate, in conse- 
nence of the return of the memorial by the honest and stubborn 
termans of old York: and when time and reflection had made him 
sensible of the preposterous grounds, he had, under the excitement 
£ the moment, been led to assume, he made a reasonable atonement 
or his former excesses. But a still stronger illustration of this 
sling occurred in the progress of our personal intercourse, which 
jough it happened long afterwards, may as well be mentioned 
ere. Few will have forgotten the gold spoon story, which cut so 
omnspicuous a figure and is supposed to have exerted so large an 
nfluence upon the Presidential canvass of 1840. 

As far back as the commencement of Mr. Monroe’s administration, 
“quantity of very extravagant French furniture was purchased for 
he Presidential mansion, through the agency of Consul Lee,* himself 
n ostentatious man; and among the rest, a parcel of spoons, which 
ere alleged to be of pure gold. These, with other portions of that 
urniture, were still at the White House in my time. I was charged 
ith having purchased them, and the alleged extravagance made 
natter of accusation against me in the canvass. Several prominent 
hig politicians who were perfectly conversant with the facts, so 
ar forgot themselves as to introduce the subject in their election- 
ering speeches, with the exaggerations and falsifications that had 
sen attached to the subject by their tools, and Mr. Preston was, un- 
appily, one of that number. Circumstances had occurred in our | 
ial relations, which in addition to the favorable opinion TI had 
ormed of his character, more particularly in all that related to the 
ourtesies of life, made this course, on his part, particularly annoy- 
17. JI therefore determined to make him an exception to my gen- 
ral course, by noticing the matter, but to do it in a way which 
hilst it should impress him with a sense of my feelings upon the 
ibject should not be inconsistent with the respect I had always felt 
or him, and the decorum that was due to our relative positions. 
Vhen he called, on the first day of the session, to pay his respects, 


1 William Lee, Consul at Bordeaux. 
127483°—vot 2—20——49 


770 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. — 


as was his invariable habit, he found me in the office, surrounded b: 
some dozen friends Ge in a lively conversation, and one or t 
doing business with me. I received him with unaffected respect, bul 
sufficiently deficient in that cheerful cordiality, which had generalh 
marked our intercourse, to show him that I felt the unhandsome 
treatment I had received at his hands, but might not have served t 
make our interview quite as abrupt, as he saw fit to render it, if he 
had not approached me with a deep consciousness of the imp 0: 
priety of the course he had pursued towards me, uppermost in his 
mind. He took the chair, to which I invited him, but occupied it only 
long enough to allow me to remark upon the unusual severity of the 
peaches! then arose, made me a formal bow, and retired. His sudde 
exit attracted the attention of the company. Senator Roane of 
Virginia, in particular, exclaimed, “ What has become of Preston— 
what made him leave so soon? ” Gre or two others adverted to th 
matter, but no one even suspected that anything of an unpleasan 
nature had occurred. Nothing was therefore said which made it nec 
essary for me to explain and I resumed the business from which hi 
visit had diverted me, and my friends their chat. If the matter ha 
been left to me, the extraordinary circumstance would not have agai 
been referred to, except perhaps, with the members of my famil 
but Col. Preston thought and acted differently. To the first frient 
he met, on the Avenue, he said, as I was thereafter informed: 

“‘ Well, I have been to pay my respects to the President. He received me wit 
all the respect that was due to a Senator of the United States. Spoke of th 
coldness of the weather, and treated and received me in a way that was 
d deal colder than the weather,” and added, “ But that is not the worst ¢ 
it; he was perfectly right, and treated me no worse than I have deserved 
“How so?” “Why, I was goose enough, during the recent canvass to mal 
myself a party in one of my Virginia speeches to the absurd gold spoon story: 


step, of which, I was heartily ashamed, the moment I had done it, and have bee 
so ever since.’ 


And ever afterwards, he spoke of our interview to his friends ax 
others, in the same unreserved way. It so happened that we ney 
met again; but my eldest son who married an intimate friend of 
family, visited him frequently in South Carolina, and through hii 
we often talked at each other in a way altogether respectful a1 
°kindly. Such was the real character of my feelings towards him 
and I have never doubted that they were, in the main, cinearely r 
ciprocated by him to the day of his death. 

But, in respect to the erasure impeachment, there was, for ti 
moment, no let up on his part; he, on the contrary, instigated ar 
aided in keeping on foot a debate on the untenable proposition 1 
had advanced, in which a majority of the Senators participate 


° MS, VII, p. 75. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. yoru’ 


which having commenced early in the day lasted until an advanced 
40 ur in the evening, and was, as Niles said in his Weekly Register, 
‘listened to, by one of the most closely packed auditories that ever 
filled the galleries (and he might have added the floor too) of the 
an enate. 29: 
_ During all this time I was literally on trial. The reader has 
en for what—noit certainly for the offence upon which it was 
intended that I should be arraigned; as I had shewn too just a sense 
f what was becoming in me to do, to take the step for which that 
a aignment was hoped to be set up as. a justification. But, upon a 
charge trumped up on the spur of the occasion, because the leaders 
f the opposition, had promised their friends a sort of auto da fe 
and were determined neither to disappoint them, nor to be disap- 
pointed themselves, in any attempt, at least, to disparage me for 
which there was supposed to exist the slightest pretence. Occur- 
rer ces not destitute of interest presented themselves in the course of 
the day the most of which must pass unnoticed. The Congress 
going ladies whose name was legion apprised that a scene was ex- 
pected to come off, a species of information, which was never be- 
Bond their reach, were early in the seats allotted to them, and in 
many that were not. The Senate galleries were also early filled to 
the exclusion, in a great measure, of sober minded spectators, by 
the outside representatives of the bank, distinguished in the streets 
by the appellation of “bank bullies.” The opposition members of 
the House, apprised of what. was to be done, dropped off, one after 
mother, and repaired to the Senate chamber. Friends of the admin- 
fet hpi even, impelled by an uncontrollable curiosity, followed 
uit, in considerable numbers, until it was found difficult to pre- 
“serve a quorum and an early adjournment consequently effected. 
The Senate chamber was literally swamped by the currents that 
"were turned upon it from these sources and willing that my oppo- 
/ nents should have a full swing, I directed our worthy doorkeeper, the 
well known and long remembered Judge Haight +*to light the lamps 
| the moment there was a necessity for it, which he did not fail to do. 
_ Every thing being thus gorgeously arranged, grave Senators mak- 
ing vehement speeches about nothing; but not the less successful in 
| drawing forth testimonials of admiration and subdued applause from 
1 giddy and excited audience; we were presented with a full dress 
ibition of the modus parandes through the influence of which the 
hoped to carry away from their duty to their constituents 
ugh of the weak and the venal to undermine and finally overthrow 
he majority against its pretensions in the House of Representatives— 
xhibitions, which occurred, sometimes daily, but seldom at greater 


1Stephen Haight, assistant doorkeeper. 


772 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 


intervals than twice a week, during the principal part of that dis- 
reputable session. Exhibitions, which were at the time the source of 
no slight consolation to those who were designed to be injured by 
them, because we believed, and that on good grounds, that whilst these 
things were going on at Washington, there were all the while thou- 
sands upon thousands, in every quarter of the country, sincere friends 
to our institutions and desirous to see them maintained in their purity 
and simplicity, who mourned over these excesses and determined, at 
the proper time, to hold their authors to a rigid and severe responsi- 
bility. The wonder to me was, that men like Clay, Webster and Cal- 
houn did not foresee that such would be—must he the case, if the 
American people remained true to themselves. But all such reflec: 
tions were smothered in the reciprocal excitements that these political 
debaucheries produced upon those engaged in them, or were drowned 
in the dinners and party going dissipations, which had never before 
been so prevalent or half so animated at Washington. Mr. Clay. 
becoming convinced that the particular proceeding on foot, was doing 
them no good, not on account of the array, which I have described, 
for strange to say, that was to his taste, but on the ground of the 
utterly baseless character of the position which Preston had taken. 
and the absence of even a decent pretence for the persevering assaul 
that was made upon me, resorted to one of his dexterous parliamen- 
tary movements to extricate his party from the dilemma in which it 
had been placed. To this end, he approached towards the chair, and, 
in his smooth, seemingly friendly and well digested terms, suggested 
the propriety of passing the subject over, till the next morning; te 
give, as he said, the chair a better opportunity to look into the matter. 
with more deliberation than that which had yet been allowed him, and 
adopt such a course then, as he should judge advisable. My particu 
lar friends in the body, had mainly gathered round Mr. Forsyth’s seat 
where they kept very quiet, taking no further part in the debate, than 
was sufficient to preclude the idea of abandoning, in any respect, tk 
ground upon which I had acted; but prepared for any duty. Not 
one of them had, throughout the day, either approached the chair 
or communicated with me, in any form, other than such as wert 
addressed to it from their respective seats. They were, however, ai 
I saw, alarmed, lest I might be induced to acquiesce in Mr. Clay’ 
suggestion, which they believed to be a trap set for me, by h 
designed to make a drawn battle of the affair by the postponem 
for the day, to be laid aside in the morning—an opinion in whi 
they soon saw, I fully participated. I thanked Mr. Clay for hi 
polite suggestion, but assured him and the Senate, that I wanted ( 
time, either to form, or to prepare for an expression of my opin ior 
upon every question which any Senator might think grew out of ¢ th 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 773 


yject, as it stood. That I was therefore opposed to delay of any 
d would wait patiently the action of the body, and after every 
nato had been allowed an opportunity to say all that he desired 
on the subject, the Chair would submit its own views upon so much 
‘it, as he should deem necessary to notice. Satisfied by these re- 
ts that I understood the game of our opponents, in all respects, 
d was in no danger of being taken in by their civ ilities, my friends 
sly dismissed from their minds all concern in regard to the 
Su The venerable Ex-President Adams stood below the chair 
m nearly the beginning to the close of the proceedings, a period of 
hours, a watchful and seemingly interested spectator of the 
ene. I invited him to take a seat with me on the platform, which 
s respectfully and kindly declined, then caused a chair to be placed 
ar him which he did not occupy, because he could, as he told the 
ssenger, see better as he stood. In that position he remained till 
e adjournment, certainly the most imperturbable and apparently 
p least exhausted person of the entire assemblage. 
Mr. Webster, at a late period in the discussion, renewed Mr. Clay’s 
mpt to get rid of the subject in a side way. His suggestions, as 
ight be expected, were of a character far less entitled to respect 
n those of the former gentleman, and were therefore less cour- 
sly received. Entirely conscious of the entire security of my 
0 ison, I had but little to think about and occupied some of my 
employed time in speculations upon the appearance as well of the 
snatorial actors in the scene, as of the various classes of spectators, 
ith which every nook and corner of the chamber was filled. The 
ats of my friend, Thomas W. Ludlow Esq. of New York, long 
a iarly known and esteemed by all who were thus favored, by the 
e of Tom Ludlow; and his very intelligent and sensible lady, 
e so open to my observation, and my recollection of the interest 
sy took in the scene, is even at this late day, so vivid, that I cannot 
it hhold a brief notice of the excitement they evinced. They were, 
cl Sisal, early in their places and continued in them to the end, 
viously without thinking of their dinners; not a slight matter to 
rsons who were so favorably known as the patrons of good living, 
: would, to all appearance, have remained till morning, if that 
d been necessary to enable them to see the matter out. One or the 
was constantly standing to make sure that nothing should 
» them. Their oft repeated glances at me, as if to see how I 
ood dit, would, of itself, have been sufficient, or if I had been ignor- 
it of the depth and disinterestedness of their friendship, to satisfy 
2 of ae deep interest they took in the proceedings and of their 
yprehension that something very injurious to me might grow out 
the matter. As I anticipated, when I reached the vestibule, I met 


ea 
7174 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, = 


my relieved friends and received their earnest congratulations on 
satisfactory termination of the affair. The contrast between the 
appearance and action of my friends, and those of the accusing Sen- 
ators was very striking. Whilst the latter, throughout that long 
sitting, seemed restless, excited and passionate—oceupied the floor 
more than three fourths of the time—making vehement speeches, 
‘signifying nothing ; the former, to use Senator bse co Sm s cele- 
brated remark 1 = respect to Mr. Biddle, seemed “as calm as a sum~ 
mer’s morning.” Conscious that no harm had been done by any body, 
to any person, or thing, that the clamor that was raised about my 
action in the matter was simply absurd, and satisfied that every 
fairminded ° man, including most of the assailing Senators them- 
selves, would in the end, see the matter in that light, my discreet 
friends spoke but seldom, and then briefly, dispassionately and to the 
point. This difference could be easily accounted for. Adroit men, 
expert actors, experienced in public life and conversant with the ways 
of the world, may sometimes succeed in concealing from those im 
whose presence they are acting, the unworthiness of the motives by 
which they are influenced, but they can never hide it from them- 
selves. There is in the breasts of even the worst of men a monitor. 
which keeps the truth before them ever, and ruffles their complacency, 
turn which way they will. It is this conviction and the apprehensiony 
that being known to them, it is also seen by others, by which they a 
disturbed. Hence the disparity in the conduct and appearances 01 
the respective actors in those extraordinary scenes. r. 

Though usually slow in arriving at correct conclusions on such 
points all the leaders of the opposition saw, in the sequel, that they 
were engaged in a losing concern, and became anxious to get rid oi 
the subject. Mr. Clay left his seat, on one of his snuff taking exped i 
tions, his common resort, when anyihene was going on, of which hi 
wished to wash his hands, and occupied his time in badinage and th 
exercise of his skill in repartee with my friends, Wright and For- 
syth, a repartee in which they frequently jnidiulgene As soon there- 
fore as they felt themselves safe in assuming that their rank and file 
had been allowed sufficient time to have their respective says, th 
signal for the close of the debate was given. After asking whethe 
any other Senator wished to address the chair, and receiving no r 
sponse, I made them the address which will be found in the Congres 
sional Globe, and the drift of which will be made sufficiently apparen 
by the following extract: i 

The subject matter out of which the present question has arisen presents tw 
points for decision; that is to say, first, Does a communication intended to f 
laid before the Senate through the medium of the Presiding Officer, from th 


= 


° MS. VII, p. 80. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 775 


nt of its reception by the Chair, become, ipso facto, as is contained, the 
rty and part of the archives of the Senate, so as to deprive the Chair of 
| discretion, as to the disposition to be made of it, without the approbation 
f the body? And if that be not the case, then, secondly, Under what responsi- 
bility does the Chair rest to the Senate, in regard to the character of the com- 
munications which it suffers to reach the body through its agency? These are 
srtainly questions of a very grave character, well deserving the deliberate con- 
ation of the Senate. They are questions in respect to which there would 
seem to be a diversity of opinion among the members; and it is certainly far 
4 m being the intention of the Chair to pass, in this form, upon the correctness 
0! eed ncaalpang deductions which have, in this respect, been drawn from the 
on s before us, by honorable Senators. Its only purpose is to state its 
own ae and, in doing so, it feels that it may safely assume, that if it be 
errect to say that the Chair has no rightful authority over communications 
addressed to it for the use of the Senate; no right to return them to those from 
whom they came; to deliver them over to their representatives on this floor, 
and withhold them from the Senate, then most clearly the Chair cannot be 
held responsible for the contents of any paper thus presented. It can only be 
necessary to state this proposition, to render the incongruity and injustice of the 
pposing pretension obvious to the meanest capacity, and to secure its rejection 
by every unprejudiced mind. What then is the true rule as to the power and 
duties of the Chair, in regard to the disposition of papers addressed to it with 
a view to their submission to the Senate? Could the Chair allow itself to coa- 
sult its convenience only, and to relieve itself from responsibility, there is no 
rule that could be suggested, by which those objects could be more effectually 
omplished, than that which has been contended for—by which its office, in 
his respect, is converted into one of a purely ministerial character, and by 
which every paper received by it for the use of the Senate, is at once converted 
into a portion of the Senatorial archives. But the Chair has not been able to 
Satisfy itself, that it could thus be relieved from a duty which it owed to the 
penate. Ti has, on the contrary, considered it to be a portion of that duty to 
withhold such communications as, in the exercise of its best discretion, it con- 
sidered to be so framed, as to render their presentation inconsistent with the 
nect due to the Senate, as well as such as were, from other considerations, 
tly subject to the operation of the same rule. Scarcely a week passes, in 
ch communications are not received by the Chair, with a request to have them 
before the Senate, in respect to which it is apparent that their authors are 
suffering under mental aberrations. 
_ Communications of this sort. of which many are constantly in the possession 
f the Chair, would, on the supposition referred to, be entitled to the disposi- 
tion which is claimed for the paper under consideration. But the exercise ot 
he discretion referred to has not been confined by the Chair to papers of 
description, which might justly be regarded as extreme Cases. Tt has, 
the contrary, felt it to be within the line of its duty, to withhold from the 
ate communications which, however high and sound the source from which 
y emanated, contained reflections upon the Senate, plainly derogatory to 
honor. It is but a few weeks since, that the Chair received, with a 
equest to lay them before the Senate, the proceedings of a public meeting 
ield in the city of Philadelphia, which, it was obvious, had been a very large 
me, and which the Chair does not doubt to have been also very respectable, 
n which the severest censure was denounced against this body, for an act 
n which the present incumbent of the Chair happened to have had a par- 
jieular interest. Under the influence of the sense of duty which has been 


2% Bitte de 
776 AMERICAN HISTORICAL 4990G/A3iGie as 


expressed, the Chair did not hesitate to deliver the paper ‘to one of th 
Senators from that State, with a request that it should be respectfu 
returned to the source from which it had come, with the information. that h 
Chair felt it to be inconsistent with its duty to lay a paper containing s 
matter before the Senate. The Chair would have preferred in this, as i 
would in every similar case, to have pursued the course authorized by 1€ 
rules of the Senate, and which has heretofore, in other respects, been s¢ 
extensively adopted, of taking the sense of the Senate, in the first instance 
upon the propriety of receiving the paper in question. But it has hitherto 
appeared to the Chair, that that could not well be done without expos ne 
the Senate to the indignity against which the discretion exercised by 
Chair was calculated to protect it, viz. the indignity of having a paper res 
to it which reflected upon its character and motives? 

That the talented men who lent themselves to this second a 
equally unfounded assault upon a political opponent, against who mi 
they had no ground for hostility other than political rivalry, i in ad- 
dition to its injustice, committed a grievous error as it respe 
themselves, soon became obvious to all. 

The course which might, on the part of his co-adjutors, be 
garded by their friends in the subdued light of an error in partisar 
warfare, in regard to Mr, Webster, bore a far worse aspect, as long a: 
that gentleman suspected me of being willing to present to the 
Senate, in the character of its presiding officer, a memorial contain 
ing an impeachment of his conduct, for the avowal of which, by a 
Senator in his place, it would have heal my duty to have called thai 
Senator to order—and still more so, if he credited the slandero : 
suspicions, promulgated by Senator Poindexter, no one could 
would have blamed him for meditating, and if it had so turnec 
out, for prosecuting with all his power the severest measures of re 
taliation. But in proportion to the vigor of his assault und 
such circumstances should have been the measure of his forbearance 
when he found that such suspicions were not only without th 
shadow of foundation but that I had, without consulting a < 
tered upon active measures to prevent its presentation, and sati: 
fied, as he doubtless was of my sincerity in that movement, he ow 
it to me, to himself and to his position to have abandoned at th i 
instant, cordially and cheerfully the hostile proceedings upon whic 
he was bent. What further effect the consciousness of the injus 
tice he had done me, was calculated to produce in ingenuous = nd 
and what more he might. have said or done in the premises, wi 
of course left to his own sense of propriety. But to have receive 
my friendly communication in the way I have described, one » 
abhorrent to my feelings at the moment, and still too fresh i nm 
recollection to admit of mistake in the account I have given = if 


1The MS. refers to the Congressional Globe of 1834, pp. 245-246, in Van Bur 
library as marked, The above extract is selected from the Globe for 1834, Mar, 22, \ 
1, No. 16, pp. 245-246. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 117 


e separated from me with the full knowledge of my dispo- 
s not only liberal but friendly, yet determined to deal with 
ina spirit of unabated hostility and a determination to carry 
his first views, embarrassed only by the obstacles which the 
rality of my course had interposed to the full gratification of 
vindictive designs, crowned the unworthiness of which no epithets 

Id aggravate. 
this was not the most delicate of the various relations in 
( a Mr. Webster stood towards these proceedings. There was, 
I a pily another, the true character and bearings of which are 
lispensable to a fair consideration of the merits or demerits of 
R 9 participated in them. They occurred at the most excited 
fied of the memorable struggle of the bank of the United States 
+ an extension of its charter whilst the Country in general and 
rk county in particular were literally ringing with accusations 
emma of the corrupt uses of its funds by that institution 
he furtherance of that object. 
President Jackson, who stood at the head of the opposition to a 
mpliance with its wishes was less dependent than others for cor- 
t information in respect to its proceedings on account of access 
that portion of the board of directors which represented the Gov- 
pment, the selection of which was made by himself. In the vigi- 
watch which he kept upon all its movements, its dealings 
h members of Congress occupied the front ground, and the fear- 
s and independent Editor of the Globe, Mr. Blair, was not slow 
‘ba ward in arraigning at the bar of the ey those whom 
het the Executive or himself had, as they thought, good reason 
‘suspect of participating in the wages of corruption. The most 
ominent among those who were thus placed before the country 
d against whom the charges of the Globe were specific, were 
orge Poindexter and Daniel Webster. Both. defended themselves 
gains these charges, Poindexter under his own name, Webster 

ough the instrumentality of a Boston editor, and it so happened 
t the defences in both cases were of the same general character, 
’ that the monies they had received from the bank were the 
ails of regular discounts of notes and drafts drawn in the course 
f business, and in no way connected with any matter or inducement 
ce that imputed to them. 
The truth or falsehood of the charges which were thus exhibited 
mst Mr. Poindexter are not intended to be enquired into, or 
sd. upon here. The matter was, at the time, discussed at large i in 
> public papers and proof produced, or referred to on both sides. 
fhose who have any curiosity on the subject will find the subject 
lly canvassed in the papers of the day and can judge for them- 
Ives. In respect to Mr. Webster's case, the same course could not. with 


~“¥ 


7178 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, — 


equal propriety be pursued. The people of York county ha 
access with others to what was said and published upon the 
ject of his guilt or innocence in the matter referred to, more 
indeed, than many other portions of the country, inasmuch as the 
state was the seat of the bank, and was thus rendered the focus 
most that was said and done upon the exciting subject. They w 
of course proportionally better informed as they thought of | 
grounds upon which these imputations upon Mr. Webster rested. 
They believed them to be well founded and felt it their duty ¢ 
assume the responsibility of a public expression of their convicti 
but selected a mode for giving publicity to their accusations wh 
was inadmissible for reasons in no way affecting the guilt or in 
cence of Mr. Webster in the matter. Their proceedings were th 
fore arrested, and the charges suppressed as has been stated. ee 
were, nevertheless, if not principally through Mr. Webster’s ins 
mentality, certainly with his active cooperation, accused in 
Senate, and before the Country, with being the authors of false 
slanderous charges against him. No statement of the proceedi 
have described would therefore be just to all the parties, which did n 
also give at least a general view of the circumstances as they were th 
presented to the public in relation to the charges against Mr. Webs 
One of the Boston papers, assuming to speak by Mr. Webs 
authority—the correctness of which was never, in any way, brov 
in doubt—said : : 
We are authorized to say that since Mr. Webster’s residence in Boston 
acceptances, and other paper bearing his name, have been discounted 
bank of the U. States, more or less frequently every year, in the ordinar 
of business, as at other banks, and never otherwise; and that no specia 


was ever made to him, at any time by the bank, or any of its officers te 
amount of a single dollar. 


To this defence, the Washington Globe, on the 23rd of Aug 
1832, replied as Sillows: 


°In page 424 of the Minority Report, may be found a call on the Presi 
of the Bank for “a statement of the loans made by the Bank and its branch: 
to members of Congress, editors of newspapers, or persons holding offices 
the general Goyvernment.* x 
A statement of the loans made to members of Congress was furnished to tl 
Committee, after their return to Washington, laid on the Clerk’s table with # 
Majority Report, and sent to the printer. It was however suppressed, by 
means we know not. : 
Now we fearlessly assert, that Mr. Webster was returned in that st 
as responsible, either as borrower or payer, at the Boston Branch ee $22 
and at the, principal Bank for $10,000. 
Did not Mr. Webster leave Washington within two hours after he a 
received Benton’s castigation, and the vote was taken upon the veto on ] 
Did he not arrive in Philadelphia on Saturday evening? 2 


° MS. VII, p. 85. 
x iiss sees of the Select Committee to investigate the Bank, p. 424 of House Re 
460, 22d Congress, ist Session. 


a. AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 779 


d not President Biddle left Philadelphia for his country seat before Mr. 
ster’s arrival; and did not Mr. Webster visit him there on Sunday? 

Did he not on Monday procure from the Bank ten to fifteen thousand dollars? 
Did he not get it early enough to leave Philadelphia for New York in the 
feamboat, at 12 o’Clock, M.? 

We put to Mr. Webster’s “‘ by authority ”’ press in Boston, the following ques- 


rhat authority? , 
‘We should not put these questions, did we not firmly believe that every cir- 
umstance is true. The organ of Mr. Webster is called on to respond, which 
an be done by the same authority to which he has already had access. Let us 
ave no special pleading about special loans &c. Has Mr. Webster this loan, be- 
ides the $32,000 for which he was before responsible?” 
To these interrogatories, growing as they did out of a discussion 
ommenced in Mr. Webster’s defence by one of his friends—interroga- 
ories which had been put in a form that admitted of their being an- 
wered, if founded in error, without the least sacrifice of self respect 
n his part, no response of any kind was made, either by Mr. Webster 
r his friend. My own impression upon the subject would have 
ustified me in affirming that such was the case; but as both the editor 
and proprietor of that paper are still alive, I have applied to them 
nd they confirm my statement. 
Where i is the man, properly jealous of his reputation, who would 
not, if the facts here so circumstantially detailed had ever occurred, 
ave hastened to give the lie to the whole story; or who would not, if 
affair had been part of a bona fide business transaction have forth- 
with given to the public the explanations of a course, even on that 
pposition, most extraordinary and humiliating. For even under 
h a view of the case, how revoltingly indelicate would it have been 
see any Senator, much more one occupying Mr. Webster’s position 
fore the Country, as the leading supporter of the bank, following 
the close of one of the ablest speeches of his life and the rendition 
is vote in its favour, by starting off within the next two hours to 
iladelphia the seat of that institution, following its President to his 
try seat on the Sabbath, and there, away from the bank, without 
intervention of a board of directors, or exchange committee, or 
ittee of any description receive at his hands a direction to the 
oflicers of the bank, towards which he had placed himself in so delicate 
a relation, to pay Sai out of bank hours so large a sum of money. 
ould the discontinuance of Mr. Webster’: s defense against the 
susations of the Globe, and his omission to reply to these inter- 
yatories, be regarded in any other light, than that of a virtual 
ission that the principal facts which are therein supposed to 
ve occurred, did actually take place? . They were, as has already 
en stated, put in a form to which no just exception could be taken ; 


~ us See 
780 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, — 


and Mr. Webster, by allowing himself to be defended against simi- 
lar charges, proceeding from the same source, precluded himself £ om 
objecting to the credibility of his accuser, if there had ever been 
room for any such exceptions. But how stood the case in that re- 
gard? They had been put forth by the State paper, the organ of the 
Federal administration; the independent editor of which was him- 
self a man of unblemished character, possessing the unbounded con. 
fidence of the President of the U. States, with whom, as the head of 
the Executive department of the Government, the bank was contend. 
ing for a renewal of its charter; a department which possessed the 
power and had exercised it to appoint a portion of the bank board of 
directors, whose duty it was—a duty which they performed—to re- 
port to the Executive all proceedings of the bank, of which they 
thought he ought to be informed. Under such circumstances, state- 
ments put forth by the well understood organ, that department might 
well claim to be regarded as founded on the authority of a portion of 
the board of directors. There were besides interests of the greatest 
magnitude, which it was fair to presume would be promoted by a 
successful exculpation of Mr. Webster from the imputations con- 
veyed by these revelations. These’ interrogations appeared in the 
State paper, less than three months before the Presidential election 
of 1832, on the result of which, the fate of the bank was, on all sides, 
supposed to depend. Both the bank and General Jackson, after 
his veto, went to the Country with the understanding that the de- 
cision of the people upon the issue which had thus been raised should | 
conclude the question, as to the extension of its charter: Mr. Webs er 
had been selected by the bank as its spokesman on that discussio nf 
above all others, not even excepting Mr. Clay, and he had placed its 
claims before the Country in a speech, of unsurpassed ability. The 
bank relied mainly upon the influence which that speech was calcu- 
lated to exert upon the public mind in its cause for the ultimate 
success of its application. It was the plea on which it had virtually 
consented that the great issue in which it had joined with the Presi- 
dent, should be heard and determined. It was consequently scattered 
through the country, as no speech had ever before been distributed. 
Copies were stricken off by the million at the expense of the bank, 
and the design was to bring it as nearly to every man’s door as was 
possible. This was done to an extent never before attempted. The 
triors [jurors?] were-to be the mass of the people—the farmers, 
mechanics, and laboring men of every hue, in addition to the mer- 
cantile and professional classes of whom the three former consti- 
tuted a vast majority. The extent to which their decision would be 
influenced by the opinion they should form of the purity, intergrity, 
and disinterestedness of the author of this great performance, was 
a point on which there could be no room for conflicting opinions: 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN, 781 


among sensible men. If they were led to regard him as a wise, dis- 
interested and upright statesman whose only object was to assist them 
in arriving at a correct conclusion in respect to a great public ques- 
tion, by which the country had long been convulsed and which was 
“now to be brought to an end, that result could not fail to be in the 
highest degree favorable to the bank. If, on the contrary, they 
should have reason to suspect that he was a necessitous and un- 
scrupulous politician, one, who under specious disguises, brought 
his great mental power into market, and used the political power 
“which had been placed in his hands by his confiding constituents 
‘for wise and beneficient public purposes, to the advancement of his 
individual interests—to believe that he had been so lost to decency, 
so indifferent to the respect of his countrymen, as to have acted, 
after the speech which was submitted to them had been delivered 
‘as he was, in those interrogatories, supposed to have acted, that great 
effort would not exert more influence upon their decision than so 
much waste paper. A man of Mr. Biddle’s sagacity could not have 
failed to see the matter in that light, and would have hastened to Mr. 
Webster’s exculpation, if there had not been a feature in the transac- 
tion, by which silence was rendered the only safe course to be taken. 
_ The circumstances alluded to, in the interrogatories, were nearly 
all supposed to have occurred at, and in the neighborhood of Phila- 
delphia, and whether they were truly or falsely set forth was pe- 
culiarly within the cognisance of the President and officers of the 
‘bank. Nothing therefore, could have been easier than to give them 
the lie in detail, and thus overwhelm Mr. Webster’s detractors, 
among whom they could on that account with no small degree of 
plausibility, have placed the President himself. How important 
would such a triumph have been to the bank, and how embarrassing 
to its opponents at that critical moment. Whatever may have 
caused the omission, it is well known that no attempt to cause their 
‘opponents® so great a discomfiture, was made by the bank or its po- 
litical allies. The President and his Cabinet, the State paper and 
he great party whose cause it sustained were left free to press upon 
he people the inferences that naturally arose from Webster’s silence 
and the silence of the bank also upon the subject of these revelations, - 
through which if neither refuted nor explained, the character of its 
selected standard bearer, as an upright and incorruptible man was | 
oomed to be blasted beyond redemption; and the result of the great 
“contest was what might have been anticipated. Circumstances oc- 

curred subsequently, but whilst the bank still in full blast, 
which may perhaps throw some light upon the otherwise extraor- 
dinary course pursued by Mr. Webster, Mr. Biddle and the bank 
upon the occasion of which we have been: speaking. 


| ° MS. VII, p. 90. 


- 


782 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 


After the close of the panic session, and whilst the two g ee 
parties of the country were preparing their issues for the succeed- 
ing election then at hand, at which the Country was to pronounce 
upon the acts and ee of that session and the conduct of the 
bank, the subject of Mr. Webster’s dealings with it was again 
brought into view ini the Extra Globe, edited and owned by the sam 
fearless partisans. Speaking at a time when the public mind 
yet alive to the whole subject as well of the $99, 000 reported by the 
Clayton Committee,’ as of the $10,000 to which the interrogatori es 
related, the Editor of that paper expressing himself in a way which 
aehGed the assumption that his information was derived from he 
government directors said: 


For a portion of those loans to Mr. Webster, a man was taken as security, 
who was notoriously insolvent, a defaulter to the bank at the time, who after- 
wards compromised his debts in that institution, by securing or paying fifteen 
or twenty cents on the dollar, 


6 


This charge which was also submitted to in silence, was not spe- 
cifically applied to the $10,000 debt at the mother bank; but the ex- 
treme probability that such an occurrence could have hapnesall it 
the Boston branch; and its being so much in harmony with the other 
transactions by which the advance of the ten or fifteen thousand dol- 
lars, obtained from Mr. Biddle at his country seat was characterized 
leaves scarcely a doubt that such was their meaning—and if so, and 
if the statements were well founded, we have here the explanation 
of Mr. Biddle’s persistent silence upon the subject. But be that as 
it may, one thing is, I fear, morally certain, if the notes and pi 
fessed securities of the bank were reserved from the sale to the ma: 
facturers of its archives by the ton, as waste paper, before referred 
to, have been preserved, and but a tithe of the reports of the heavy 
losses which that institution sustained from its loans to Mr. Webster 
on straw securities, so prevalent at the time of its total failure, un 
then generally credited, be true, the note that was given for those 
ten or fifteen thousand idGliazs, or its representative, equally worth 
less, will be found amongst them. If so, and without the slightes 
personal knowledge upon the point, I feel as confident of the fact as | 
‘do of my existence, farther explorations of the dusty labyrinth of a de 
funct bank parlor, to trace the real character of the principal trans: 
tion, would seem to be superfluous, and the reader will decide whether 
in such an event, farther speculations in regard to the political e 
or official purity of Daniel Webster would be equally useless.” 


1 Augustin S. Clayton, of Georgia. Majority report of the Select Committee to 
tigate the Bank, March 14, 1832. House Reports, No. 460. 22d Congress, ist S 
2 From the rough notes and loose pages of Van Buren’s first draft of the Autobiog1 
among the Van Buren Papers in the Library of Congress it is evident that there was 2 
intention, at the time, of carrying the autobiography beyond this point. 


NN 


A, 


A. B. plot, 181, 187, 576, 5762. 
Aberdeen, Harl of, 499, 528, 529. 
_Abolitionists, 138, 492. 


Act (of 1802) to regulate trade, etc.. with 
Indians, 280. 
Adams, Henry, History of the U. S., 56n, 


| 69n. - 
Adams, John, 123, 139, 140, 179, 183, 188, 
189, 190, 191, 434, 435; assailed by Ran- 
_ dolph, 439, 440; character, 189, 190, 
191; correspondence with Cunningham, 
- 188; Franklin’s opinion of, 191; opin- 
ion of Franklin, 191; supported by Pat- 
rick Henry, 433, 434, 435; Van Buren’s 
visit to, 188. 
Adams, John, of Virginia, 436. 
Adams, John Quincy, 108, 126, 141, 
145, 149, 150, 152, 153, 155, 157, 
= 159; 165, 181; 192,'193, 
197, 200, 205, 219, 220, 
514, 522, 529, 534, 560, 
244, 278, 279, 282, 284, 293, 
303, 398, 418, 421, 429, 511, 
~ 599, 710, 734, 742, 773; ad- 
dress on Lafayette, 226n; administra- 
tion, 193, 199; capitalizes prejudice 
against England to gain Presidency, 494, 
495, 496; character, 203, 271, 272; colli- 
- sion with Senate on Panama mission, 
_ 201; election, 142, 152, 310; first an- 
- nual message, 195, 196; Fourth of July 
oration, 495; friends politically pro- 
_ seribed, 247; inaugural address, 194; In- 
- dian message, 283; Jackson’s feeling 
against, 269, 270, 271; latitudinarian 
- doctrines, 449; minister to Russia, 192; 
personal relations with Jackson, 271; 
_ Presidential candidacy, 116, 131; Van 
_ Buren’s opinion of, 192; Van Buren’s op- 
position to, 199; Van Buren’s visit to, 
269; warns Van Buren, 270. 
Adams, Samuel, 188, 189. 
Addington, Henry, letier to, 203. 
African seizures, see Great Britain, seiz- 
ures of American slave ships. 
Alabama, Indians claim self-government 
in, 277, 286. \ 
Albany, ‘N. Y., Anti-nullification meeting, 
562, 563, 564; citizens’ regard for Van 
‘Buren, 227; postmastership, 125, 126, 
234; Republicans, 126, 


143, 
158, 
194, 
233, 
575, 


3 


INDEX. 


Albany Argus (The), 57, 61, 108, 139. 
147, 196, 197: comment on N, Y. legisla- 
ture’s report on Nullification proclama- 
tion, 553. 

Albany county, N. Y., 105. 

“ Albany Regency,” 113. 

Alexander, Mark, 207. 

Alien and Sedition laws, 190, 412, 414. 
429, 440; Cooper’s imprisonment, 159, 
160; eae support of, 433, 437; 
Lyon’s imprisonment, 439, 440; Madi- 
son’s report on, 302; Randolph’s speech 
against, 439. 

Allen, Peter, contested election, 73. 

Alley, Saul, 264, 547. 

Althorp, Lord, Van Buren’s opinion of, 476, 
477. 

« Ambrosiad * articles, 41, 42, 43. 

America, South, independence, 306; 
publics, 484. 

American Board of Foreign Missions and 
Indian question, 293. 

American Citizen (newspaper). 
Spencer, 41, 43. 

American Quarterly Review, 648. 

** American System” (Clay’s tariff), 
554, 555, 556, 559, 682. 

Ames, Fisher, 313, 419. 

Appointment, N. Y. Council of, 38, 39n. 
66, 69, 70, 73, T6n, 79, 80, 86n, 91, 92, 
93, 94, 94n, 102n, 103, 103n, 174; abol- 
ished, 106, 107: removes Van Buren, 


re- 


attacks 


411, 


89, 94n. 
Appointments, poltical, by Jackson, 249, 
250; Van Buren’s suggestions in N. Y., 


107. 

Appleton, Nathan, 658, 658n. 

“Appeal”? Calhoun’s. See under Calhoun, 
John C. 

Appomatox River, Virginia, barons of, 431, 

Archer, William S., 151, 567, 576. 

“ Aristides,” pamphlet, 109, 109n. 

Armstrong, John, 42, 43, 66, 67, 74. 

Army, Provisional, 429. 

Arnold, Benedict, 189. 

Astor, John Jacob, 175. 

Astronomical observatories, 195. 

Attorney General of U. S., 258, 598, 606: 
Butler for, 593; offered to McLane, 257. 

Attorney General of N. Y., 38, 42, 68, 69, 
70, 71, 73, 174; appointment, 38, 39, 94n, 
159; Van Buren’s appointment, 224; Van 
Buren’s removal from, 92, 93, 94, 225. 


783 


/ 


784 INDEX. 


Atwater, , Judge, 70. 
Auctioneer officers, New York, 223. 
Aukland, Lord, 457, 473; opinion of Senate 
rejection of Van Buren’s nomination, 458. 
Aurora (The), (Philadelphia), 183, 600. 
Austria, 485. 
B, 


Balch, Alfred, letters to, 367, 367n, 368. 

Baldwin, Abraham, 415, 578. 

Baldwin, Henry, 237, 237n, 292, 292n. 

Baltimore, Maryland, Convention (of 1832), 
584, 586, 587, 588, 591; (of 1840), 227; 
State bank failure, 737. 

Bank, National, 671; a disturbing ques- 
tion from the beginning, 631. 

Bank of North America, 28, 32, 45, 49; 
bonus, 32, 44; bribery, 96, 110; mania, 
36. 

Bank, (First) U. S., controlling influence 
in Congress, 638. 

Bank, (Second) U. S., 297, 299, 300, 312, 
320, 363; 411, 605, 648, 700, 704, 709, 
710; adherents in Congress, 659; aid to, 
531, 593, 594, 705; aided in Senate, 713, 
716, 717, 717n, 718, 719, 720, 723, 728, 
731, 733, 779, 780; attempt to control 
Government, 640, 641; attempt to con- 
trol public opinion, 641, 642; eampaign 
aided by removal of deposits, 658; can- 
didate for President of U. S., 626: 
charged with bribery, 764, 777; charter, 
275, 294, 424, 449, 510, 521, 5381, 566, 
593, 601, 603, 616, 617, 618, 619, 620, 
621, 622, 623, 624, 628, 683, 686, 638, 
646, 647, 655, 657, 658, .659, 662, 715, 
728, 733, 777; claims credit for well- 
regulated currency, 721; control of the 
press, 658; controversy, 287, 294, 584, 
632, 683, 763, 777; corrupt use of funds, 
124, 641, 642, 777, 778; criminal in- 
trigues, 124; dealings with Members of 
Congress, 777; defeated, 626, 627, 631; 
difficulties of winding up its affairs, 621, 
622, 647; directors, 642, 648, 649, 651. 
657; directors empower president to use 
Bank’s funds, 648, 649, 651, 657; dis- 
counts, 621; engineers the panic, 607, 
640, 641, 642, 651, 651n, 654, 655, 656, 
659, 712, 741, 717, 719, 726, 727; ex- 
change committee, 641, 642, 643, 644, 
645, 647, 656; fears Jackson, 619; finan- 
cial measures, 646, 646n, 647, 649, 649n, 
650, 651, 651n, 655, 656, 657; French 
indemnity case decided against, 649n: 
government directors, 641, 643, 649n, 
777; government directors refused infor- 
mation, 643, 648, 649; government stock 
and deposits, 642; influence to turn Jack- 
son from his course, 626; investigation 
of, 643; investigation report of select 
committee of House of Representatives, 
778, 778, 782, T82n; Irving on, 610 
611; Jackson’s attitude, 619; Jackson’s 
reelection a mandate to suppress, 657; 


Jackson’s remark about, 626; leadership | 
Barton, David, 201n, 215, 


of affairs in Senate, 661, 662, 663, 664; 


| Barker, Jacob, 75; suggests elevation 


loan curtailment independent of remov. 
cf deposits, 656, 657; loans made to go 
ernment ‘officers, 778 ; mathematical state. 
ment of condition, 652, 653; memorial 
721; menace to country in struggle for 
renewal of charter, 628; newspaper sup 
port, 746, 748; opposition to, 183, 184 
184n, 449, 619, 626, 628, 647, 656, 65 f 
733, 734, 766; opposition to Jackson. 
449, 450, 531, 616; peoples’ judgment on, 
628, 640; plans frustrated, 758; plan 
campaign, 620, 621, 622, 623, 624, 636. 
637, 638, 639, 640, 641, 642, 643, 645, 
646, 647, 648, 650, 651, 651n, 652, 652 
G54, 655, 656, 657, 662, 687, 696, 704; 
political advantage, 658 ; postponement 
payment of public debt, 645, 646, 647, 
649; power given to its president, 641, 
642, 643; power over Webster, 661; 
preparations for struggle, 620, 621; 
president of, 633, 647, 648, 649; See also 
Biddle, Nicholas; president’s control o 
funds, 653; pressure exerted by, 696. 
pressure on State banks, 653, 654, 656 
publications, 648, 780; publishes and 
distributes Webster’s speech, 780; re 
fusal to abide by decision at the polls, 
627, 632, 633; restoration of deposits. 
717, 719, 721, 722; revelations of course 
of, 604; “rule or ruin” policy, 627; 
secret arrangement with Baring Bros., 
645, 646, 647, 649; size of financial busi- 
ness, 633; stock, 449, 642; strength in 
Congress, 636, 638; supported by Su- 
preme Court, 126; tactics in Congress 
647, 678, 717, 726, 771, 777; Taney’s re 
port on, 643, 6432; unscrupulous met! 
ods, 719, 722, 726, 727; Van Buren’s re 
view of controversy, 618, 619, 620, 621. 
622, 623, 624, 636, 637, 638, 639, 640 
Webster’s financial dealings. with, 77! 
779, 780, 781, 782. 
Banks, monoply and failures in New York 
Van Buren’s bill, 221. 
Banks, State, 601, 602, 696, 725; curtail 
ment of loans, 653, 654, 656; pressure 
from U. S. Bank, 653, 654, 656; publ 
money deposited in, 603, 607. 
Banks, of U. S., attempts to continue, 63! 
Bankhead, Charles, 455. 
Bankrupt law, 213, 214, 215, 217. : 
Barbour, Philip, 278, 299, 303, 308, 30 
522; desires Vice-Presidency. 584. 
Baring Bros. & Co., secret cenents 
U. S. Bank with, 645, 646. 


Van Buren to N. Y. Supreme bene 
90, 91. 


Barnum, , 89n. ; 
Barnwell Courthouse, S. C., Hammond 
speech at, 411, 411n. ‘ 


Barry, William T., 325, 325n, 350, 350 
406, 508, 545, 581, 588, 589; charact 
and management of U. S. Post Office, 74 

Barstow, , 103n. 


Zassett, John Spencer, Life of Andrew 
Jackson, 388n. 

ay, aa g 

elknap, , 8ST. 

ell, John, elected Speaker of House of Rep- 
resentatives, 226n: interview with Van 
Buren, 226n. “ 
ell, Samuel, 677. 

3enson, Egbert, 18. 

senton, Jesse, 665”. 

Benton, Thomas H., 384, 410, 426, 504, 
511, 513, 533, 534, 535, 643, 665, 669. 
676, 708, 778; account of Clay, 535; let- 


669; speech on the Bank, 733, 734; sup- 
port of Jackson, 723; “Thirty Years 
View.” 115, 204, 367, 391, 392n, 393n, 
535, 668. 

Berrien, John Macpherson, 213, 213n, 214. 
215, 216, 350, 350n, 352, 356, 357, 358. 
359. 360, 361, 362; appointed Attorney 
General, 257; letter to, 359: offered mis- 
sion to England, 257; relations with Van 
Buren, 216. 

sertrand, Marshal, 459. 

Bibb, George M., 374, 454, 454n, 676, 751. 
756; absent from Senate on vote on Van 
Buren’s nomination, 533. 

Biddle, Charles John, 634. 

Biddle. Nicholas, 617, 633, 634. 636, 638. 


663, 683, 694, 704, 722, 736, 774, 781. 
782; actions, 634, 648, 649; Clay’s visit 
to, 660, 664; engineers campaign by mail 
against removal of deposits, 607: in- 
fluence and power, 635, 634: interview 
‘with Jackson, 619, 619n ; misunderstand- 
ing of Jackson, 6477; personal honesty. 
650: Webster’s visit to. 779. 

Birdseye, , 1067. 

bishops, in House of Lords, and the Re- 
form bill, 460, 461. 

slack Sea, negotiation for open 
for American vessels, 257, 270. 
Blair, Frank Preston, 321, 323. 358, 
Stt, 382, De2, 534,. 535, 568, 571, 
60in, 606, 607, 614, S667, 668, 751. 
777; feud with Clay, 667; informs 


navigation 


353. 
592, 
752, 


Jackson’s papers bequeathed to, 667: 
letters, 607, 614, 669; letter to, 669; 
regrets praise of McLane, 614; regrets 
preventing resignations of Cass and Mc- 
Lane, 608. 

air, Mrs. Frank P., 667. 

leeker, Harmanus, 429. 

oodgood, Abraham. 547. 

loodgood, DeWitt. 165. 

loodgood, Francis A., 39n, 

sloom, Henry, 76n. 

pling, Powhatan. 436. 

pnney, Catharina Van Rensselaer, Legacy 
of Historical Gleanings, 125n. 

enus bill, Calhoun’s. 298, 299, 300, 328, 
0, 331, 334. 


127483°—vor 2—20——50 


INDEX. 


ter, 668; relationship to Clay, 6657, 668, | 


644, 646, 647, 6477, 648, 657, 660, 661. | 


Van | 
‘Buren of McLane’s hostility, 569, 570: | 


785 


Boston, citizens meeting on nullification 
proclamation, 547; mechanics’ proceed- 
ings prior to adoption of Constitution. 
693, 694. 

Boston Gazette (The), 680. 

Bouligny, Dominique, 201n. 

Bourbons, restoration of, 585. 

Bowne, Walter, 76n, 103, 103n, 547, 579. 

Braintree, House of, 190. 

Branch, John, 211, 21in, 212, 215, 350, 
350n, 351,852, 356, 358, 360, 361, 362. 

Brent, Daniel, 421, 421n. 

| Bright, John, opinion of United States, 479. 

Brockenborough, William, 259, 259n. 

Broome county, N. Y., 80. 

Brougham, Lord, Van Buren's opinion of, 
472, 473, 474, 475. 

Brown, Bedford, 676; support of Jackson. 
723. 

Brown, James. i128; speech, 129. 

Brown, Mrs. James, 128. 

Bruyn, Johannes, 397. 

Bryan, Mrs., 436. 

Buchanan, James. 289, 495, 556, 556n, 597: 
capitalizes prejudice against England to 
gain Presidency, 496: conduct at Eng- 
lish court, 497; envoy to England, 496. 
497; on Webster and Clay, 662, 663, 
663n. 

Bucktail Bard, 94n. 

Bucktail Bard, 94n. 

Buel, Jesse, 1067. 

Buel, — oa Ti Ie 

Buffalo and New Orleans road, 311. 

Buren, town of, 10, 10n. 

Burr, Aaron, 13, 21, 28, 32, 55, 109, 120: 
charges against. 109” ; conversation with 
Van Buren, 400; duel with Hamilton, 
16, 29: Van Buren’s relations with, 15. 

“* Burrites,” 109. 

Butler, Benjamin Franklin (of N. Y.). 536. 
965, 597, 598, 605; approved for At- 
torney Generalship by Van Buren, 593. 


ce. 


Cabinet, Jackson’s, 231, 244, 246, 249, 269, 
610, 614; appointments, 593, 594, 595: 
changes, 596, 604, 606, 608: dinner, 348, 
349, 350; disruption, 356, 520; Federal 
tendencies in, 545, 546; meetings, 250, 
251, 320; offer of place to Webster, 701, 
706; paper on removal of deposits read 
to, 601, 601n, 608, T37; reception, 351: 
resignation, 356. 

Cadwallader, Thomas, 647n. 

Calhoun, John C., 12, 27, 
169, 194, 199, 200, 204, 

244, 278, 297, 303, 

. 364, 369, 370. 

380, 381, 382. 

415, 454, 508, 


122, 124, 157, 
209, 210, 220, 
306, 307, 325, 
371, 372, 373, 
388, 389, 399, 
519n, 532, 533. 
- 567, 568, 575, 576n, 617, 635, 
666, 667, 670, 677, 685, G85n, 
707, 708, 709, 756, 757, 759, 


786 


772, 766, 767, 768; “‘ Appeal ” pamphlet, 
367, 377, 378, 379, 380, 383, 384, 389, 
398, 569, 749, 750, 751, 752; appointed 
Secretary of War, 300; approves appoint- 
ment of Van Buren as Secretary of State, 
517; attacked by Clay, 290, 391, 392; 
attacks Van Buren, 675; Bank speech, 
733 ; bill to repeal Force bill, 744; Bonus 
bill, 298, 299, 300, 328, 330; breaks with 
Adams’ supporters, 514; charges against 
Van Buren, 366, 367, 368, 384; charges 
against Webster, 681, 682; coalition with 
White, 225n; committed to nullification, 
541; construction of U. S, Constitution, 
513; contest with Jackson, 752; conver- 
sation with Van Buren, 409; correspond- 
ence with Jackson, 366, 375, 376, 376n, 
383, 384, 385, 386; debate with Clay, 
392, 3937; declines Van Buren’s dinner 
invitation and afterwards appears, 750; 
disposition, 519; elected Vice President, 
220, 514; Federal proclivities, 636; feud 
with Clay, 554, 555, 560, 561; idea of 
Jackson’s purpose as to a successor, 504, 
505; inconsistency on tariff, 411, 412; 
Jackson’s desire to arrest, 544; letter on 
Jackson’s Seminole War conduct, 506; let- 
ters, 371, 374n, 375, 376n, 381n, 514, 516; 
nomination for President, 384, 393, 394; 
nomination for Vice President, 515, 516; 
nullification scheme, 382, 395, 410, 541; 
on Adams-Clay-Crawford-Jackson contest, 
515; opposes the money power, 389, 390; 
opposition to, 367; opposition to Jack- 
son and his administration, 257, 663; 
opposition to Van Buren, 513, 517, 518, 
519, 520; originates Internal Improve- 
ment policy, 411; personal relations with 
Van Buren, 389, 390, 391, 392, 393, 394, 
395, 518, 514, 584, 535, 749, 750, 753; 
political principles, 513; political ruin, 
751; Presidential candidacy, 116, 131, 
384, 663; pronunciamento, 356; quarrel 
with Crawford, 366, 367, 368, 369, 388 ; 
quarrel with Jackson, 366, 367, 373, 374, 
375, 377, 378, 379, 380, 381, 384, 388, 
410, 505, 506, 520, 749; reaches the nul- 
lification idea, 410; report on Internal 
Improvements, 300, 300n; responsibility 
for starting idea of rejecting Van Buren’s 
nomination to England, 512, 513; respon- 
sibility for U. S. Bank, 411; selects Jef- 
ferson’s birthday dinner to launch nulli- 
fication, 413; severs friendship with 
Jackson, 749; successor to Jackson, 504; 
tariff, 409, 410, 411, 412; toast at nulli- 
fication dinner, 416; Webster’s remarks 
on, 682, 

Callender, James Thomas, 
against Hamilton, 120. 

Cambreleng, Churchill C., 231, 268, 367, 
423n, 514, 515, 573, 595, 604, 606; de- 
scribes rejection of Van Buren’s nomina- 
tion in Senate, 454; letters, 268, 454, 
502; opinion on proper time of Van 
Buren’s return to U. S., 503; speech on 
Bank panic, 655, 656; Van Buren’s 
opinion of, 655. 


156; charges 


INDEX. 


‘Canals, 309. 


Campbell, John, 441. 
Campbell, » 385. 
Canada, rebellion, 466. 
Canadian Fisheries dispute, 498, 499. 
Webster’s actions and speech on, 498, 
499, 500. ; 


Canning, George, 481, 521. 
Cannons, the, 755. ; 
Cantine, Moses J., 32, 32n, 85, 86. 
Cards, “brag”? game between Clay and 
Poindexter, 754. , 
Carman, , 89n. 
Carolina, North, 554. 
Carolina, South, 415, 424, 553, 561, 562. 
699, 709, 744; against Jackson, 542; 
antagonism to Van Buren, 768; Clay’s 
bill to pacify, 679, 681, 685, 693, 695; 
force raised to support nullification, 544 ; 
Jackson’s desire to aid, 663; latitu- 
dinarians, 416; nullification, 396, 409, 
680; nullification ordinance, 542; op 
poses abolition of slave trade, 135; op- 
poses Clay, 553; policy in forcing nulli 
fication, 541, 542; position on nullifica 
tion, 554; refuses to support Clay, 542: 
submission of, 557. Z 
Caroline, burning of the, 466, 466n. 
Carrington, Edward, 434; letter to, 433 
report on Henry, 433. ’ 
Carson, Samuel P., 325, 325n. 
Cass, Lewis, 497, 587, 602, 606; capitalizes 
prejudice against England to gain Presi- 
dency, 495, 496; claims credit for removal 
of deposits, 608; Jackson’s opinion of 
resignation, 608; opposes removal of de- 
posits, 603, 604; opposes veto of rechar- 
ter of Bank, 603, 604. 
Cattarall, R. C. H., Second Bank of the 
United States, 646n. j 
Chambers, Ezekiel F., 677. 
Chambers, Henry, 201n. 
Chancellor of New York, 110, 111. 
also Kent, James. 
Chandler, John, 201n. 
Charlotte Court House, Va., 435; resolu- 
tions, 424, 425. 
Chauncey, Isaac, 349, 3497. 
Cheetham, James, 41. ; 
Cherokee Indians, 295; address to people 0: 
U. S., 292; case of vs. Georgia, 291 
292; conflict with Georgia, 282; inde 
pendent government, 282; Jackson’s 
forts with, 294; lands, 281, 290, 29 
memorial, 290; missionaries in country 
293; stand on removal, 290. 
Chesapeake and Ohio canal, 309, 363. 
Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company 
315, 327, 329, .336. 
Cheves, Langdon, 122, 411. 
Chickasaw Indians, Jackson’s advice t 


294. 
Child, . 106n. 
Childs, P. G., 52. 
Chittenden, , 664. 


Choctaw Indians, Jackson’s advice to, 294 
Cholera, in New York, 510. 


h. the, auxiliary of political, partisan 
lvantage, 290, 293. 

incinnati, Ohio, Webster's speech at, 691. 
cuit judges, appointment, 218. 

S, social obligation, Van Buren on, 461. 
Sification bill (N. Y. militia), 55, 56, 
, o8. 

Slay, Henry, 108, 122, 145, 148, 
153, 162, 163, 165, 181, 193, 
197, 200, 220, 244, 248, 255, 
301, 306, 307, 308, 309, 320, 
364, 382, 390, 398, 426, 
508, 511, 515, 520, 521, 532, 534, 
537, 541, 542, 552n, 567, 575, 617, 
(634, 635, 637, 638, 652, 663, 663n, 
, 669, 672, 674, 675, GTT, 678, 
4, 703, 707, 709, 710, 711, 730, 
42. 745, 754, 759, 762, 767, 772, 773, 
‘774, 778, 780; “American System,” 411, 
554, 555, 556, 559, 682; analysis of Web- 
ster’s action, 688, 689, 694 ; appointed Sec- 
_ tetary of State, 310: appreciates Benton’s 
account of the Adams-Clay charges, 668 ; 
attacks Calhoun, 390, 391, 392; attacks 
eB! jackson, 737; attacks N. Y. patety fund 
system, 741: attacks Yan Buren, 675, 
759; attacks upon, 556, 557; backs in- 
improvement policy, +11; 
ton’s treatment of, in his Thirty Years 
View, 535; bill to distribute proceeds of 
Pl es land among the States, 742, 742n,. 
, 744; bill for pacification of South 
= olina, 679, 681, 682, 685, 693, 693n, 
699; blocks Webster's leadership in Sen- 
ate, 716; “brag” game with Poindex- 
ar, 704, 755; calls for report on duties 
f <= Secretary of Treasury, 740; char- 
acter, 559, 560, 561; charges against, 
666, 668; charges against Taney. 
compared with Webster, 560, 
261, 718, 719; compromise bill, 556; 
pestuct contrasted with Webster's, 560, 


151, 
194, 
299, 
323, 
449, 


152, 
196, 
300, 
356, 
454, 
535, 
633, 
665, 
683, 


i. 
& 731, 


te na 


with Calhoun, 392, 393; defeated by 
Jackson, 626; defeated for Presidency, 
686; duel with Randolph, 204, 207, 
4; efforts to induce -him to run as 
ice-President with Crawford. 665; 
me, 713; favors Force Bill, 698: feud 
vith Blair, 667; feud with Calhoun, 
5 555, 561; the “Great Pacificator,” 
hostility to Van Buren, 521; hos- 
ty to Webster, 679; influences Van 
sselaer, 152; instructions in West 
a trade negotiation, 521; last chance 
Presidency, 635; leadership in Sen- 
712, 716; leads Bank campaign, 639, 
644; letter, 203n; letter to, 669; 
ngston’s resentment, 705, 706: 
aoe cooperation with, 717; on 
iren, 568; move = overturn his Sen- 
leadership, 677, 679; move to trap 
im Buren, 772; nominated for Secre- 
y of State, 666, 667, 668; opinion of 


INDEX. 


Ben- | 


; courage, 662; death, 535; debate | 


3 | Clinton, De Witt, 29, 30, 
ove 
«pes political effects, 200, 203; | 


Ysville yeto, 329; meeting with Van _ 


787 


Webster. 670; opposed to nullification, ~ 
698; opinion of South Carolina, 553: 
personal relations with Van Buren, 534, 
535, 568, 665, 667, 668, 669, 670; per- 
sonal relations with Webster, 734, 735, 
736; plan for increasing panic, 717, 718. 
719, 720, 736; on political allegiance, 
670, 671; political career, 501; polit- 
ical control of Bank campaign, 660, 662. 
664; political course, 670, 671; political 
maneuvers, 686; political relations with 
Webster, 660, 662, 663, 670, 681, 682, 
684, 686, 687, 688, 689, 694, 696, 698. 
699, 700, 702, 703, 705, 706, 715; posi- 
tion in nullification crisis, 554, 555, 557: 
prejudice against England, 501, 502; 
Presidential aspirations, 663; Presiden- 
tial candidacy, 116, 131; Presidential 
chanees, 711, 714; private correspond- 
“ence, 537n; quarrel with Jackson, 560; 
reconciles Webster and Poindexter, 685, 
686; relationship to Benton, 665n; re- 
marks on postponing Senate committee 
appointments, 676; report on bill to dis- 
tribute proceeds of public lands among 
the States, 743, 744; reports failure of 
Union Bank of Maryland, 737, 738; res- 
olution calling for Jackson’s paper to 
Cabinet on removal of deposits, 737: 
resolution calling for report on the Union 
bank, 738; resolutions on removal power 
of the President, 742, 742n; resolutions 
to restore deposits to U. S. Bank, 717, 
T1lin, 728, 731, 732; Secretary of State, 
157, 310; services to nation, 560, 561; 
speech against the Bank, 303; speech 
against Jackson’s veto of recharter of 
Bank, 622; speech on his South Carolina 
pacification bill, 684; speech in reply to 
Webster, 556, 557, 558; supports “‘ Force 
Bill,” 681; tactics to aid the Bank, 634, 
635, 712, 713, 714, 715,716, 720, 723, 
727, 731, 736, 737, 738, 739, 740, 741, 
742, 744; tactics to increase panic, 717, 
718, 719, 720, 736, 738, 739, 744; on 
tariff, 240; Van Buren’s visit to, 153; 
visits Biddle, 660, 664; visits Van Buren, 
153, 534, 664; Webster’s attempt to take 
control of Bank campaign from, 728, 731, 
732, 733, 734, T86; Webster's fear of, 
682, 728. 734; Websier’s opposition to, 
682, 683; Webster's speech against, 683, 
684. 
Clayton, Augustin S., 782, 7827. 
Clayton, John M., 201n; visit to Clay, 743. 
Clergymen, complicate the Indian question, 
284, 293. 
36, 37, 38, 39, 
39n, 41, 42, 43, 64, T1u, 72, 73, 85, 86, 
86n, 87, 89n, 90, 91, 92, 93, 98, 99, 100n, 
101, 101in, 102, 102n, 104, 105, 106, 138, 
144, 145, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 
197, 227, 228, 232, 233, 401, 515; atti- 
tude on amendment of Constitution, 
102n; character, 167, 168; death, 157, 
160, 166, 166, 167 ; Democratic support, 


788 


158, 159; elected, 164, 165: Erie Canal 
policy, 84, 157; Federalist connections, 
45, 46,°48, 49, 49n, 158, 159; inaugura- 


tion, 88; message to Van Buren, 89;:op-— 


posed by Van Buren, 105, 163, 164 ; popu- 
larity, 158; Presidential candidacy, 37, 
38, 39, 40, 41, 157, 158; reelected goy- 
ernor, 99, 144, 147, 164, 165; reelection 
chances, 160, 161;“removed from Canal 
Board, 148, 1470 159; retirement, 103, 
112; return to’political power,. 74, 75, 76, 
76n, 77, 78,79, 80, 81, 82, 83; supported 
by Van Buren, 37, 38, 40, 41, 42, 75, 158; 
supports administration, 86; Van Buren’s 
address on death of, 166, 166”, 167; Van 
Buren’s break with, 45, 46, 47, 48, 101; 
Van Buren’s feeling toward, 96; Van 
Buren’s relations with, 149. 

Clinton, Mrs. DeWitt, 149. 

Clinton, George, 227, 411, 631. 

Clintonians, split with Republicans, 
union with Federalists, 90. 

“Clover bottom race course,” 755. 

Cobden, Richard, 412; opinion of United 
States, 479. 

Cochrane, Sir Alexander 
letter, 58n. 

Cocke, Philip St. George, 

Colden, William, 401. 

Collins, — , 106n. 

Colton, Calvin, Private Correspondence of 
Henry Clay, 5377. 

Columbian Sentinel (The), 209. 

Commerce, with British West Indies and 
North America, 274. 

Congress, attitude toward appropriations, 
810; anticipation of receipts from sale 
of public lands, 117; Bank adherents in, 
658, 659; Bank debate in, 719, 720, 726, 
727; Bank's efforts to influence, 651, 656; 
Bank’s plans frustrated in, Bank 
pressure on, 659; Bank strength in, 714; 
Bank tactics in, 712, 713, 714, 715, 716, 
771; calls for instructions to treops sent 
to South Carolina, 543; distress memo- 
rials ins oie Y22 123," (24> 125; 7027, 
736, 739, 740, 748; 
plan to foment panic, 712, 713, 716: pow- 
ers, 302, 316, 317: pressure on in behalf 
of Bank, 637, 639, 640, 641, 642. Seve 
also House of Representatives also 
Senate. 

Congressional Globe (The), 357, 358, 360, 
377, 384, 386, 398, 532, 568, 587, 614, 
730, 751, 774, T76n, T77; article, 378; 
charges bribery by the Bank, 777, 778, 
779, 780, 781, 782: establishment of, 
385; questions Webster, 778, 779. 

Conklin, Frank J., 9n. 

Conscription. See Classification bill. 

Constitution, U, 8., 647; adoption opposed, 
431, 432, 443; amendments, 118, 315, 
316, 317, 468n; Convention, 135, 135n, 
471, 472; implied powers, 204, 297, 298, 
299; on internal improvements, 327, 328; 
interpretations, 513, 545, 546, 549, 695; 
President’s appointive and removal power 
under, 742; guarantees slavery, 137. 


s 


89; 


Forester Inglis, 


5T6n. 


758; 


extravagance, 321; | 


INDEX, 


Cuthbert, Alfred, 149, 149, 151, 


Convention, at Baltimore (1832), 585, 
588, 591; (of 1840), 227; first of i 
kind, 584. , Arse 

Conway Cabal, 444, 

Cook, Daniel P., 182. 

Coolidge, Mrs. Joseph, 183. 

Cooper, Thomas, 159, 159n, 160; convi 
under the Alien and Sedition law, 1 
160, 183; Jefferson’s opinion of, 15: 
opinion of Jackson, 160; opposed to Clin 
ton, 160; relations with Van Burer 
160. 

Cooper, Mrs. 228. 

Corporations, Jackson’s opposition to goy 
ernment being a shareholder in, 595. — 

“Corrector”? (The), 109. 

Cotton, tariff on, 240. 

Courts, auxiliaries of political, partisan a 
vantage, 290. : 

Cox, , claim, 128, 129, 130. 

Cox, Mrs., 128. 

Cramer, John, 145. 

Crawford, William H., 108, 122, 124, 
149, 150, 157, 162, 194, 198, 241, 
3803, 307, 370, 371, 372, 373, 374, 
376, 380, 385, 386, 388, 449, 514, 514 
517, 566, 575, S76n, 665, 667, 752 
charges against, 181, 182; House repo1 
on charges against, 182n; King’s opinio 
of, 181; letters, 367, 368 ; Presidenti 
candidacy, 116, 131, 142, 145; qu 
with Calhoun, 366, 367, 368, 369, 
supported by Van Buren, 140 ; suppor 
235, 240; Van Buren’s visit te, 367, 

Creek Indians, arrest surveyors and app 
to the President, 280; Jackson’s a 
to, 285, 294; lands, 281. 

Creek-Cherokee Confederacy, 279. 

Croker, , 477. 

Crosby, Darius, 145, 145n. 

Crosby, St > i aa SF 

Croswell, Edwin, letter, 197,- 1987. 

Croswell, Harry, 401. 

Croswell, . 598. 

Cumberland Road, bill,’ 117; expense, 
toll-gates, 302, 307, 315. 

Cunningham, William, correspondence wi 
Adams, 1881. ¥ 

Currency, U. 8. Bank claims Ee! for, ' 1 


722. ‘ 
Curtis, Edward, 536, 538; conduct i 

Gardner fraud case, 537; influence oy 

Webster, 536, 537. : ch 
Custis, G. W. P., 418. ~ 


Customs, duties (“Force Bill”), bill ta 5 
force collection, 5441. ‘ 
575, 


D. 


Dallas, George M., 597, 626; opinion 4 
Bank memorial for recharter, 622. 

Dandridge, Nathan, 441, 

Davis, Warren R., 353. 

Davis, , 88. 

Dayton, Jonathan 67, 69, 70, Tin; letter to 
298, 298n. 


< 


4 
NI 


debt, imprisonment for, 212. 
t, Public, payment of, 645, 647; U. 8. 
nk’s obstructs paying off of, 645, 646, 


atur, Mrs. Stephen, 152. 

Yemocrats, N. Y., alliance of ‘‘ Highminded 
Federalists” with, 105, 108; support 
Clinton, 150, 159. ’ 

Democracy, perpetual struggle with mon- 
archy, 485. 

pmocratic Convention. See Convention. 
of England, 493. 

Denison, John Evelyn, 4797. 


See Denison, John 


Deposits, Renmioval of the, 600, 601, 603, 
| 603n, 607, 608, 609, 643, 656, 657, 659, 
696, 703, 714, 717, 718, 722, 726, 731, 
739, 746. 747, 766; an aid to Bank’s 
‘campaign, 658; analysis of, 725; debate 
in House of Representatives on, 717, 718; 
decided upon, 657, 658; effect on country, 
602, 607 ; Jackson’s paper read to Cabinet 
on, 601, 60in, 608, 737; independent of 
Bank’s loan curtailments, 656, 657 ; legal 
procedure for, 714, 715; public sentiment 
in favor of, 604, 606; restoration of, 717, 
Tlin, 721, 722, 724, 725, 726; 728; 
Strengthens Bank, 638; Taney’s report 
on, 652; Van Buren’s defense of, 6037; 
Vebster on, 703: 

Yerby, Lord, 464, 491, 499; Van Buren’s 
opinion of, 475, 476. 

Dick Shift” of the Bucktail Bard, 94n, 
4 09. . . 

kerson, John D., 574. 

kerson, Mahlon, 182, 188, 20in, 241, 
242, 267, 585, 685; desires Vice Presi- 
dency, 584. 

ckerson, Philemon, 118. 

ickins, Asbury, 182. 

oO, tchess de, 458, 460, 473. 

effect of Jackson’s character 


iplomatic appointments, 251, 252: corps’ 
adverse ideas of Jackson, 260, 261, 262; 
corps’ apprehensions relieved, 262. 


joddridge, Philip, funeral, 270. 
onelson, Andrew Jackson, 270, 270n, 323, 


ray , 169. 
uane, William, 600. 
mane, William J., 593n, 602, 607; com- 
missioner under French treaty, 600; 
favors Bank, 594, 605; health, 602; Sec- 
etary of the Treasury, 593, 594, 596, 


Democratic Party, opponents, 489; distrust | 


INDEX. 


789 


| Dudley, Charles E., 169, 263, 263n, 430, 
002, 595. 
Duer, John, 89n, 104, 108, 109, 401. 


enmark, successful negotiation of claims | 


Duer, William A., 138. 

Duncan, Alexander, 495. 

Duncanson, J. M., 384, 385, 399. 

Dutchess county, New York, contested dele- 
gation, 82. 

Duval, Gabriel, 577, 583, 584. 

Dwight, Henry W., 574, 574i. 


E. 


Earle, » Ort. 

Taston, Miss, 343, 344, 345. 

Eaton Affair, 250, 339, 340, 341, 342, 343. 
344, 245, 347, 348, 350, 351, 352, 356, 357. 
358, 360, 373, 395, 397, 403, 520; the 
first Cabinet dinner, 348, 349, 350. 

Eaton, John H., 225n, 238, 241, 242, 242n, 
325, 225n, 340, 342, 345. 350, 352, 354, 
355, 356, 357, 358, 359, 360, 361, 363, 
364, 365, 377, 379, 380, 405, 406, 50S. 
586, 587, 589, 590, 701, 751: appointed 
Governor of Florida, 364; appointed 
Minister to Spain, 364: Jackson’s wish 
for his return to place of Secretary of 
War, 705; letter, 590: opposes Jackson, 
363, 365; recalled from Spain, 364: 
resignation as Secretary of War, 350, 
356, 406, 407. 

Eaton, Mrs. John Henry (Peggy O’Neale), 
342, 243, 344, 351, 352, 354, 358, 359, 
361, 365, 407: Jackson’s and Van 
Buren’s last call on, 407, 408. 

Edwards, Ninian, 181, 576n; appointed 
Minister to Mexico, 181; charges against 
Crawford, 181, 182. 

Edwards, Ogden, 102n, 106, 106n. 

Eldred, , 104n. 

Electors, Presidential, New York mode of 
choosing, 142, 145, 146, 146n, 147. 

Elections, N. Y., use of money in, 222, 223; 
Van Buren’s bill against use of money in, 
221. 

Elmendorff, Lucas, 66, 67, 69, 70, Tin, T2. 

Elwus, Dr., 606. 

Embargo, 28, 192. 

Emmett, Thomas Addis, 21, 24, 63, 96, 160, 
176; appointment as attorney general of 
N.-Y., 39, 96; death, 172, 173, 175. 

Emott, James, 76n. 

England. See Great Britain. 

Eppes, John W., 435. 

“Era of Good ‘Feeling,’ 124, 126, 429: 

Erie Canal, New York, 84, 84n, 85, 143, 
167 ; commissioners, 91; opening celebra- 
tion, 157. 

Ervings, the, 755. 

Europe, political alignment, 485. 

Evans, Edward E., 103, 103n. 

Everett, Edward, 499, 529, 707 ; letter, 528 ; 
Webster’s Works, 708. 

Ewing, Thomas, 567, 677, 745, 745n; chair- 
man of Committee on Post Offices, 745. 

Exeter, Bishop of, 460, 461. 


790 INDEX. A 
F. F'ree ‘nae in England, 411, 465. — — 
Frelingauysen, Theodore, 288, 675, 676 


Faneuil Hall, Boston, meeting, 688, 689, 
695; Webster’s speech at, 698. 

Federal Republican party, 734, 746. 

Federalist Party, 494; continuance of, 124, 
125; deserts principles in capitalizing 
prejudice against England to gain Presi- 
dency, 494, 495, 496; ruined by Hartford 
Convention, 489; tendencies in Jackson’s 
Cabinet ; theory of adoption of Constitu- 
tion, 545. 

Federalists, 39, 40, 41, 43, 45, 47, 48, 49, 
49n, 59, 80n, 81, 82, 102n, 104, 116, 158, 
159, 186, 193, 218, 220; address against, 
88n; and anti-Federalists played against 
each other, 468n ; Clintonians union with, 
90; hatred of Henry, 432; New York 
against Council of Appointment, 106; op- 
position in New York legislature to War 
of 1812, 49, 50, 51, 52, 56, 88n; in U. 8. 
Senate, 710, 711; withdraw support from 
Jackson, 449. 

Fellows, Henry, contested election, 73. 

Ferguson, John, 264, 

Fillmore, Millard, nomination vote, 500. 

Finance, Senate Committee on, Webster's 
move to obtain reference of resolutions 
to, 731, 732. 

Findlay, William, 210n, 235, 235n. 

Fish, Preserved, 43. 

Fitzhugh, Mr. and Mrs., 514. : 

Flagg, Azariah C., 147, 147n, 222, 222n, 
586, 587, 598, 741; letter to, 591. 

Florida, Jackson’s conduct in, 373, 375, 383. 

Floyd, John B., 181, 553. 

Foot, Ebenezer, 32, 33. 

Force Bill, 544, 544n, 548, 554, 554n, 681, 
698, 701, 758; repeal, 744; Tyler’s vote 
against, 710”; Webster credited with 
passage of, 708. 

Foreign relations, 
party feelings in, 
labor on, 273. 

Forman, Joshua, 221; letter, 22in. 

Forsyth, John, 272, 272n, 279, 365, 370, 
371, 372, 373, 374, 380, 381, 386, 573, 
598, 606, 662, 676, 708, 734, 744, 760, 
761, 772; altercation with Poindexter, 
757; appointed Secretary of State, 613; 
defense of Taney, 738, 741; defense of 
Van Buren, 539, 540; desires Vice Presi- 


reciprocity in, 494; 
512; Van Buren’s 


dency, 584; explanation, 373, 374; let- 
ters, 370, 373, 389; letter to, 369; op- 
position to Van Buren, 584; Supports 


Jackson, 723, 724. 

‘‘Porty Thieves,” 104. 

France, 485; claims against, 609; negotia- 
tion with, 274; Envoy from, party, 753; 
non-payment of draft by, 612; treat- 
ment accorded U. S., 487; treaty with, 
599; U. S. disregards treaty alliance, 
485; U. S. envoy to, 229, 251, 252, 433, 
434; war with, 429. 

Franklin, Benjamin, 189; Adams on, 191; 
letter, 191; opinion of Adams, 191. 


174. 
French Indemnity bill, case, 649, 649n. 
French Spoliation claims, 251, 272; Ad: 

on Webster’s unpatriotic speech, 271 
Friends, Society of, complicates the Indian 

situation, 285, 289. 
Frothingham, , 1030. 


G. 


Gaillard, John, 115. 
Gales & Seaton, 556; Register of Debates. 
211n, 215, 215n, 219n. 7 
Gallatin, Albert, 117, 297n, 521; mission 
to England, 521, 522; report on interna! 
improvements, 297. 
Gardinier, Barent, 33. - ¥ 
Gardner fraud, 537. 
Garland, Hugh A., 435, 438. 
Georgia, 414, 415; Cherokee lands, 291 
292; cited to appear before U. S. § 
preme Court, 290; conflict with In 
rights, 282; conflict with U. S., 291; 
ernor asks withdrawal of missionaries 
Cherokee country, 293; Indians, 
290; Indians .claim self-government, 2 
278, 279; missionary imposture, 626; 
poses abolition of slave trade, 135 ; ord 
survey of Indian lands, 280; radi 
416; versus Cherokee Nation, 291n, 2! 
German, Obediah, 47, 66, 93, 99; can 
dacy for Speaker of N. Y¥. Assembly 
89, 90. 7 
Gibson, Milner, 467. 
Gilbert, W., 38, 39. 
Girard, Stephen, 596. 
Gladstone, William E., 468. 
Globe. See Congressional Globe. 
Goat Island, purchase of a class right, 
Goes [Hoes], Maria, 10n. 
Gold Spoon story, 769, 770. 
Goldsborough, Charles W., 426. 
Gooch, Anne, 665n. ‘ 
Gore, Christopher, 76n. 
Gorham, Benjamin, 575, 575n. 
Government officers, appointment, 7? 42 
power to raise money, 304; removal, 
Governor of New York, state dinner, 6 
Graham, Sir James, 468. 
Graham, John A., 75. 
Granger, Gideon, 82, 99. “ 
Great Britain (England), alliance — 
U. S., 485, 486, 493; circular exclud: 
American fishermen from Canadian fis] 
ies, 498, 499; claim to right of sear 
528, 529; conduct in War of 1812, 5 
58, 60; "convention with, 203n; Demi 
cratic party’s distrust of, 493; effort 1 
favorably impress foreign ministers, 44! 
feeling about War of 1812, 490; fre 
press in, 630; free trade in, 411; friend 
ship with U. S., 491, 492, 494; go 
ment system compared with U. &., 
481, 482, 483, 492, 493; King, 451, 
King’s judgment of Jackson, 450, 


iF ro 


Senate, 455, 456; negotiations with U. S. 
on West Indies trade, 251, 256, 272, 274, 
 §22, 523, 525, 526, 530; news of Van 
Buren’s rejection by Senate received in, 
_ 4538, 454, 455, 456, 457; North American 
trade negotiations, 274; power of public 
_ opinion in, 481, 483; prejudice against, 
494, 495, 496, 497, 498, 499, 500, 501, 
502; Queen, 456, 457; Queen’s drawing 
room, 455; right of search in slave trade. 
203, 528, 529; refusal of West India 
trade privileges to U. S., 522, 523; secre- 
tary to U. S. mission, 258; seizures of 
American slave ships, 528; simplicity of 
nobility, 473, 474; treatment accorded 
Uz. S., 486, 487, 495; treatment accorded 
- Yan Buren on news of his rejection by 
Senate, 456; U. S. envoy to, 251, 252, 
257, 258, 260, 273, 325, 458, 496; Van 
Buren appointed envoy to, 404, 405; Van 
Buren’s nomination rejected by Senate, 
395, 455, 456, 748, 756; war with Rus- 
sia, 467. 
Green, Duff, 366, 376”, 384, 397, 514; 
scheme to defeat Jackson and elect Cal- 


houn, 384. - ‘ 
reene county, N. Y., attempted depriva- 


_ tion of its state senator, 86, 87, 88. 
Gregory, Matthew, 69. 

Grey, Lord, 479, 491; speech on the Re- 
form bill, 460, 461, 462; Van Buren’s 
_ opinion of, 460, 461. 

‘Grosvenor, Thomas P., 27, 28, 62, 401. 
Grundy, Felix, 226n, 325, 325n, 377, 378, 
379, 380, 381, 382, 415, 568, 675, 676, 
677, 681, 686, 687, 688, 690, 699, 700, 
_ 703, 704, 707, 710, 711, 750, 751; belief 
that Webster would cooperate with 
Jackson, 677, 678, 679; meeting with 
Jackson and Wan Buren, 671, 672; re- 
marks on Senate postponing committee 
_ appointments, 676; support of Jackson, 
723. 


H. 


Hager, Henry, 44, 44n. 

Haight, Stephen, 771, 771n. 

Hamilton, Alexander, 150, 189, 190, 191, 
195, 227, 249, 305, 433, 486, 488, 495, 
631; advocacy of monarchy, 471; 
charges against, 120; duel with Burr, 
16, 29; favors special interests, 650; 
failure in Constitutionai Convention, 471, 
_ 472; Jefferson’s opinion of, 186, 650; 
lack as a political leader, 470, 471, 472; 
letter, 289, 298n, 488; method of an- 
_ alyzing a subject, 156; Monroe’s actions 
_ towards, 120, 121; on implied powers of 
_ Constitution, 297, 298; on power of gov- 
_ ernment to raise money, 304; personal 
honesty, 650; report on manufacturers, 
297, 304; the Reynold’s affair, 119, 120, 
1207; sons, 109; theory of government, 
639; Van Buren’s opinion of, 121. 
Hamilton, James, 151, 169, 231; Jackson’s 
desire to arrest, 544. 


INDEX. 


791 


_ 457; King on Van Buren’s rejection by , Hamilton, James A., 110, 368, 369, 370, 


371, 372, 373, 374, 380, 381, 386, 387, 
388, 389; appointment as district attor- 
ney for southern district of N. Y., 265, 
268; letters, 369, 370, 371, 372; letters 
to, 370, 371. 

Hammond, Jabez D., 86, 87, 88, 102n, 150; 
Political History of New York, 9, 37, 
39n, 41n, 44n, 48, 49n, 67n, 69n, 72, 73. 
76n, 79n, 84, 84n, 86, 86n, 88n, 90n, 91n, 
94n, 98n, 100n, 102n, 104n, 150n. 

Hammond, James H., speech, 411, 411n, 
412. 

Hancock, John, 189. 

Hardin, Benjamin, 308, 3087. 

Harper, Robert Goodloe, 575, 575n. 

Harris, Levitt, 441. 

Harrison, Richard, 21. 

Harrison, William Henry, 248, 536, 671. 

Ilarrowby, Lord, 482, 483. 

Hart, Ephraim, 91. 

Hart, Thomas, 665n. 


Hartford Convention, 49, 489, 547, 695, 
696. 
Hay, —, 235, 236. 


Hayne, Robert Y., 213, 213n, 215, 216, 326, 
414, 415, 454, 454n, 520, €67; experience 
in Senate, 217; Jackson’s desire to arrest, 
544; Nullification proclamation, 681; re- 
lations with Van Buren, 216; Van 
Buren’s opinion of, 216; Webster’s reply 
to, 680. 


Hays, — , oo. 
Hemphill, Joseph, 308, 308, 309, 310, 
314. : 


Hendricks, William, 454, 454n, 676. 

Henry, John V., 21. 

Henry, Patrick, 487; Carrington and Mar- 
shall’s report on, 433; character, 440, 
441, 442; debate with Randolph, 435, 
436, 437, 438, 439; defeats Madison, 
432; dissatisfaction with U. S. Consti- 
tution, 431, 432; genius, 187; Jefferson’s 
account of, 186, 187, 441; last speech, 
435, 437, 440; letter, 433; letter to, 433; 
nominated enyoy to France, 433, 435; 
offered Secretary of State, 433, 434; 
opposes U. 8S. Constitution, 443; plot 
against, 433, 434; political relations with 
Jefferson, 444;. political services, 431, 
432, 440, 442, 444; pursuit of wealth, 
433; reading habits, 441, 442; repug- 
nance to slavery, 133; supports Adams 
and Alien and Sedition laws, 433; sup- 

’ ports Washington in Conway Cabal, 444; 
Washington’s impression of, 443, 444. 

Herbert, Bushrod W.,~-177n. 

Herbert, Noblet, 177n. 

Herkimer, N. Y., convention, 161, 163. 

“High-minded Federalists,”’ 104, 109; alli- 
ance with Democrats, 105, 108; Van 
Buren’s relations with, 105, 108. 

Hildreth, Matthias B., 38x; death, 38. 

Hill, Isaac, 584, 676. 

Hoes, Maria. See Goes. 

Hoffman, Josiah Ogden, 61. 

Hoffman, Michael, 741, 


792 


Hoge, Moses, 436. 

Hogeboom, John C., 29, 30; break with Van 
Buren, 47, 48. 

Holland, King William I, 9. 

Holland, Lord and Lady, 473. 

Holland’s Life of Van Buren, 139n, 

Holmes, Eldad, 547. 

Holmes, John, 201in, 242, 340, , 684; 
attacks Van Buren, 524, 525; deserts 
Van Buren, 756; difficulty with Ran- 
dolph, 206, 209; proposes amendments 
to rule of Senate, 208, 209. 

Holy Roman Empire (Holy Alliance), 200, 
484. 

Horn, Henry, 394; 

Horse racing, 755. 

House of Commons, power, 462. 

House of Lords, debate on Reform bill in, 
461; Bishops’ bench in, 460, 461. 

House of Representatives, aid to panic in, 
747, 748; anti-Bank majority in, 71+, 
771; Bank’s effort to reduce hostile ma- 
jority in, 717; debate on restoration of 
deposits, 717, 718; Presidential election 
in, 149, 151, 152; Select Committee re- 
port on investigation of U. S, Bank, 778, 
778n; speaker, 226n; Van Buren’s recep- 
tion in, on his return from BHurope, 567. 

Hoyt, Jesse, 536; letters, 536, 536n, 538. 

Hubbard, Ruggles, 45, 46, 66, 67, 68, 69, 
70, Tin, 72; letter to Van Buren, 68, 

Hull, Isaac, 349, 349n. 

Hume, Joseph, Van Buren’s opinion of, 478, 
479. 

Humphreys, (Judge), 40. 

Huntington, James, 47. 

Huskisson, William, 521. 

Huygens, Baron, 261, 353, 354. 

Huygens, Madame, 352, 353, 354, 355. 


205n. 


520 


letter, 394. 


I, 


Impeachment, Jefferson on, 184. 

Imports, act to modify duties (Clay’s bill), 
693n. 

Impressment of seamen, 59, 491; 
tion, 452, 453. 

Imprisonment for debt, 212. 

Independent Treasury bill, 390. 

Indiana, application for relief from Ordi- 
nance of 1787, 135; letter to ‘governor 
of, 327. 

Indians, claim to self government, 277, 283, 
286, 288, 290, 291 ; Congress’ proceedings 
on land question, 281; land question, 
279, 280,. 281, 290; policy, 285, 289; 
question complicated by clergymen and 
Friends Society, 284; removal beyond 
the Mississippi, 275, 276, 277, 278, 279, 
285, 286, 286n, 287, 288, 289, 289n, 294, 
312, 314, 320; trade, 280; treaty, 279. 

Ingham, Samuel D., 231, 263, 263n, 350, 
350n, 352, 356, 357, 358, 359, 361, 362, 
378, 379, 514, 560, 753; appointed Sec- 
retary of the Treasury, 504, 505; desire 
to succeed to the Presidency, 504, 506; 
letter to, 360; opinion as to Jackson’s 


negotia- 


INDEX, 


Jackson, Andrew, 149, 150, 152, 


successor, 505; opposes Van Buren, 505; 
Van Buren’s opinion of, 504, 505. 
Ingham, Mrs. Samuel D., 348, 350, 352. F 
Inglis, Sir Robert, Van Buren’s. relations 
with, 482, 483. 
Inglis, Bishop, claim, 172, 175. 
Internal Improvements, 185, 194, 195, 297, 
300, 300n, 301, 302, 308, 309, 312, 313, 
314, 315, 316, 320, 322, 329, 330, 331, 
337, 338, 411, 671, 704; conflict of State 
and Federal power, 117; Constitutional 
amendment, 315, 316; Gallatin’s report 
on, 297; Hamilton on, 298; Jackson’s 
policy, 297; Jefferson on, 297; Madison 
on, 330, 335; Monroe’s position, 301, 302, 
302n, 303, 304, 305, 306, 307, 308; over- 
throw of policy, 172; policy, 115, 116, 
172, 297; political importance, 297; 
power behind, 320, 327; stopped, 275; 
Van Buren on, 117, 319, 321. 
Trish, William B., 234, 234n; 
ment, 127. 
Irving, John T., 83, 258, 611. 
Irving, Peter, 109. , 
Irving, Washington, 109, 454, 610; feeling 
towards McLane, 610, 611; letters, 610, 
611; letter to, 611; on the Bank ques- 
tion, 610, 611; secretary to English 
mission, 258, . 


appoint- 


J. 


162, 
216, 
256, 
370, 

398, 
418, 
445, 
517, 
556, 
586, 
614, 
666, 
688, 


168, 
220, 
257, 


872, 


399, 
419, 
446, 
518, 
569, 
587, 
615, 
€67, 
691, 


181, 194, 198, 199, 
225n, 231, 239, 247,. 
284, 293, 306, 310, 
380, 381, 385, 386, 
401, 402, 409, 410, 7, 
420, 428n, 424, 425, 426, 429, 
450, 451, 465, 502, 
522, 523, 524, 529, 
573, 575, 577, 579, 
590, 


674, 676, 
692, 694, 
700, 702, 704, 706, 
746, 751, 761, 763, 780; accident, 
administration, 244, 246, 251, 321, 
administration opposed, 250, 257, 
288, 289, 290, 292, 295, 709, 746, } 
administration’s social side, 229, 230; 
advice to Monroe, 234, 235; advice te 
Van Buren, 571; aid to, 314, 320; 
ance with Webster, 672, 677, 678, 

688, 689, 690, 691, 697, 698, 699, 

701, 703, 707, 709, 711; ambition to 
off national debt, 645; appointment 
foreign ministers, 251; appointment 
editors to political poattions, 247; a 
pointment rule, 249, 250, 253; arrest | 
New Orleans, 369, 370, 371; asks powe 
from Congress to deal with South Caro- 
lina situation, 5443 assassination 
tempted, 353; assumption of responsib: 
ity for administrative acts, 428, 594; 
Tammany dinner, 233; attacked by Cla. 
737; attacked by press, 746; attack 


677, 678, 680, 
695, 696, 697, 
708, 715, 736, 


by Poindexter, 745; attacked by Ran- 
dolph, 547; attitude toward Bank, 619, 
636; attitude toward South Carolina, 
518; Bank _policy, 593; belief in inten- 
tional disrespect of Senate, 599, 600; 
_ Biddle’s interview with, 619, 6197; 
_Biddle’s misunderstanding of, 647n; 
Cabinet, 244, 249, 251, 269, 340, 341, 
508, €01, 601n, 608, 614; Cabinet ap- 
pointment troubles, 593, 594, 595; Cabi- 
net changes, 596, 604, 606; Cabinet din- 
ner, 348; Cabinet disappointments, 229, 
230, 231; Cabinet disruption, 520; Cabi- 
net’s federal tendencies, 545, 546; Cabi- 
net meetings, 250, 320; Cabinet differ- 
ences of opinion and Jackson’s method 
of settling, 262; Cabinet resignations, 
_ 350, 356, 406, 407, 612, 613; Cabinet 
scheme of Webster, 672, 701, 706; Cabi- 
net worries, 610; character, 229, 267, 
275, 276, 312, 313, 353, 380, 397, 403, 
643, 544, 710; charges against, 756; con- 
duct in Florida, 373, 375, 383, 754, 755; 
conduct at New Orleans, 383; conduct 
in Seminole War, 754, 755; Cooper's 
opinion of, 160; correspondence with 
Calhoun, 366, 375, 376, 376n, 383, 384; 
course in West India trade negotiation, 
527, 528, 529; decides to remove de- 
posits, 657, 658; denounced, 424, 425, 
696, 739, 758; desires to aid South Caro- 
lina, 653; diplomatic corps’ adverse ideas 
of, 260, 261, 262; dismissal of Duane, 
603, 603n, 658, 696, 704; domestic 
policy, 275; Hastern tour, 602; Eaton 
affair, 339, 341, 353, 358. 359, 360, 361, 
364, 365; last call on Mrs. Eaton, 407, 
408; efforts to pay off public debt, 647; 
elected President, 220 ; election (of 1824), 
449; embarrassed by question of Consti- 
tutional theory in nullification excite- 
ment, 545; enemies, 658, 659 ; escorts Van] 
Buren to Capitol on latter’s return from 
England, 566; faith in the people, 625; 
feeling as to Cabinet meetings, 250; fee!- 
,ing of English people toward, 449, 450; 
J feels, Van Buren’s absence, 508; friend- 
ship, 314, 582, 755; friendship severed by 
_ Calhoun, 749; health, €25, 637; horse 
_ racing, 755; Inaugural address, 246: in- 
_ clination to personally arrest Calhoun and 
_ others, 544; Indian policy, 276, 285, 286. 
 286n, 294, 295; Internal Improvement 
| Policy, 297, 310, 311, 312, 315, 320, 321, 
327, 335, 336, 337, 363; “judicious tariff,” 
116, 240; the King’s estimate of, 459, 
451 “457: letters, 198, 198n, 224, 224n, 
233, 234, 235, 238, 248, 263, 264, 321, 
; 329, 554, 361n, 374, 387, 507, 507n, 508, 
508n, 595, 603, 604, 705, 705n; letters 
on removal of deposits not published by 
opponents, 608; letters to, 245, 261, 321, 
36in, 546, 578, 580, 598, 605, 606; Liv- 
ingston’s opinion of, 229; Livingston‘s 
epposition to, 705; McLane’s attempt to 
Sow dissension between Van Buren and, 


569; mail pressure on, 607; meeting 


INDEX. 


793 


with Van Buren, 232; meeting with Van 


Buren and Grundy, 671, 672: meets 
nullification threat, 415, 416, 417: 
message, 420, 421, 548, 544, 546, 


595; annual message, 335, 337, 420, 421. 
445, 645; message on Georgia Indian 
land case, 280, 281, 286, 286n; see also 
under veto infra; message to McLane, 
582; method of settling Cabinet differ- 
ences, 262; the Monroe-letter, 233, 234, 
235, 236, 237, 238, 239; New Orleans 
visit, 368, 369; nominated for President, 
515; nullification dinner toast, 415, 416, 
417; Nullification Proclamation, 543, 
546, 547, 548, 550, 552, 553, 680, 684. 
698, 705, 705n, 706; nullification threat 
and preparations to meet it, 413, 414, 
offers Van Buren Secretary of State port- 
folio, 224; openess in public matters, 
322; opinion of Livingston, 704, 705: 
opinion of Van Buren, 12, 503; opinion 
of Cass and McLane’s resignation, 608: 
opposed by Bank, 531, 616, 617, 640, 
644; see also under Bank (Second), U. 
S.; opposed by Calhoun, 663, 749, 750, 
751, 752; see also under Calhoun; op- 
posed by monied interests, 449, 450; op- 
posed by South Carolina, 542; opposition 
to, 715, 716; opposition to Bank, 626, 
647, 656, 657, T77; opposition to cor- 
porations with the Government as a 
shareholder, 595; overthrows internal 
improvement policy, 172; paper read to 
Cabinet on removal of deposits, 601. 
601n, 608, 737; papers, 321, 321n, 571: 
Parton’s Life of, 749, 7497; personal 
feeling against J. Q. Adams, 269, 276, 
271; personal relations with Van Buren, 
232, 233, 242, 243, 245, 402, 403, 405, 
406, 506, 567, 515, 516; plan of electing 
Van Buren Vice-President and then re- 
signing the Presidency in his favor, 506. 
507; pledge to pay off the public debt. 
324; Poindexter’s support, 754; Poin- 
dexter’s antagonism, 755, 756; policies, 
313, $21; popularity, 253, 255, 710; por- 
trayal by Van Buren, 312; position on 
tariff, 116, 239, 240, 241, 242, 554, 
preference for Pennsylvania in selecting 
a Secretary of the Treasury, 596, 597: 
preparation of public papers, 313; Presi- 
dential receptions, 230; proposed for 
President, 198; quarrel with Calhoun, 
366, 367, 373, 374, 375, 377, 378, 379. 
380, 381, 384, 388, 410, 505, 506, 520; 
quarrel with Clay, 560; reelection, 626, 
636, 689, 657; refuses to send to Senate 
paper read to Cabinet, 737; regards re- 
election as mandate to suppress the 
Bank, 657; relations with White, 226n, 
674; remark about the Bank, 625; re- 
moval of deposits, 600, 601, 601n, 60%, 
603, 603”, 604, 607, 608, 657, 658, 716, 
726, 727; resemblance to Duke of 
Wellington, 464; resignation from Sen- 
ate, 242; retirement, 508; at Rip Raps, 
601n, 603, 605, 607, 608; scheme to de- 


794 


feat, 384; second term, 506; 
War controversy, 271, 366, 368, 371, 
373, 374, 383, 388, 506; Senatorial sup- 
port, 723, 724; sends troops to South 
Carolina, 548; struggle with the Bank, 
625, 626; successor to, 504, 505, 506; 
suggests Duane -for Secretary of the 
Treasury, 596; talk to Creeks, 285; 
urges modification of tariff, 554; Van 
Buren and Calhoun cooperate to elect, 
514; Van Buren’s defense of removal of 
deposits, 603n; Van Buren’s opinion of, 
245, 250; veto of Clay’s Public Land 
Sales bill, 743, 744; veto of Bank re- 
charter, 294, 510, 531, 566, 601, 603, 
622, 623, 624, 629, 647, 662; veto of 
Maysville turnpike bill, 172, 172n, 322, 
323, 324, 325, 326, 327, 328, 329, 330, 
335, 337; Vice-Presidential candidate 
for, 584, 587, 589; visit to Eastern 
States, 689, 690; vote against thanks to 
Washington, 313; Whig effort to sepa- 
rate from Van Buren, 549; wishes Van 
Buren to return to Secretary of State 
position, 705n; wishes Van Buren to 
return to U. S., 508; wishes Van Buren 
to be Vice-President, 589, 590. 

Jackson, Rachel (Mrs, Andrew), attack on, 
269. 

Jackson, William, 120. 

James River, barons of the, 431, 

Jay, John, 18, 19, 142. 

Jay, Peter A., 73, 547, 549. 

Jefferson, Thomas, 9, 28, 36, 117, 119, 

122, 124, 126, 127, 134, 139, 140, 
147, 156, 159, 168, 177, 184, 185, 
188, 189, 192, 193, 218, 219, 249, 318, 
319, 412, 418, 418, 428, 432, 433, 435, 
448, 449, 494, 495, 650, 705; account 
of Patrick Henry, 186, 187; belief in 
Hamilton’s personal honesty, 650; birth- 
day celebration dinner at which nul- 
lification was launched, 413, 414, 415, 
416; freedom from political rancor, 183 ; 
letters, 185, 186, 186n, 190, 190n, 
432, 432n, 441, 441m; mistake as to 
Henry, 433; on evils of life tenure in 
Supreme Court, 183, 184; on impeach- 
ment, 184; on Internal Improvements, 
297 ; on Patrick Henry, 186, 187, 441; on 
punctuality, 187, 188; opinion of Hamil- 
ton, 186, 650 ; opinion of. Washington, 185, 
186; policy, 140; -political relations with 
Henry, 444; principle of patronage, 123; 
Randolph’s hostility, 208; repugnance to 
slavery, 133, 136; Van Buren’s visit to, 
182, 188, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188. 

Jenkins, Elisha, 67, 70. 

Jenkins, Robert, 30, 32. 

Jenkins, Seth, 30, 31. 

Johnson, Francis, 150. 

Johnson, Peter, 436. 

Johnson, Richard M., 201n, 213, 213n, 323, 
324, 325, 355, 358, 359, 361, 377, 381, 
568, 751; character, 745; desires Vice- 
Presidency, 584, 589; letters, 359, 360; 
Van Buren’s opinion of, 381, 382. 


121, 
141, 
186, 


INDEX. . ee 


Seminole | 


Johnson, William, 64n, 292, 292n. ; 

Johnston, Josiah §., 201n, 454, 454n, 511, 
566, 5667. 

Johnston, Josiah Stoddard, Mrs., 128. 


Jones, Henry F., letter, 100n; letter to, 

100n, me 
Jones, James, 149. 7 
Jones, Samuel, 401; confirmed as Chan- 


cellor, 158. 
Jones, Dr., visit to Van Buren, 751, 752. 
Judiciary Bill, 198, 

Judiciary officers, appointment, 107. 7 
Judiciary system, 218, 219, 220; asa peli 

cal machine, 219. 

Justices of the peace, appointment, 107. 


K. 


Kane, Elias K., 201n, 570, 573, 676; sup- 
ports Jackson, 724. 7 
Keese, Mrs., 42. ; 
Kendall, Amos, 584, 601n, 602, 607, 610. 
Kent, James, 57, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 64n, 
102, 175, 547, 549; anecdotes of, 64, 65; 
decisions reversed, 64, 64m; legal ability, 
63, 64, 64n; Memoirs and Letters, 64n. 
Kent, Joseph, 677. 
Kentucky Argus (The), 385. 
Kentucky Resolutions, 319. 
Keyes, Perley, 82, 85, 161, 163. 
Keystone State, 314. 
Kinderhook, N. Y., the Van Burens at, 10, 
10n. 
King, Adam, 763. 
King, Charles, 109, 110. 
King, James Gore, 109n. . 
King, John A., 89n, 99n, 100n, 101n. 
King, John.P., 676. 3 
King, Rufus, 59, 89n, 99n, 100n, 102n, 104n, 
105, 114, 130, 138, 139, 139”, 140, 141 
146, 147, 149, 461, 574, 574n; appoint- 
ment, 139n; attacks council of appoint 
ment, 107; attacks Shaker petition, 153, 
154; career, 155; character, 155, 156; 
death, 155; election, 45, 48; Jefferson's 
characterization of, 156; fetter, 101in; 
Life and Correspanteai 46, 49n, 59n 
73n, 76n, 100n; Minister to Hnglan 
155; opinion of Crawford, 131; opp 
tion to slavery, 139; reeleeted U. S. Sens 
tor, 100; relations with Van Buren, 100, 
101n, 108, 130, 131, 132, 139, 140, 14 
147, 154, 155; support of War of 18 
139; Van Buren’s pamphlet on, 139. 
King, William, 41. q 
King, William R., 209, 210, 744, 744n; 
supports Jackson, 724. 
Knight, Nehemiah M., 676. “ 
Knower, Benjamin, 165, 169, 170, 171, 562. 
563. & 
Knox, Henry, 190. 
Kossuth, Louis, dinner, 608. 
Krehmer, George, 235, 238, 560; 
238. 
Krudener, Baron, 352, 353, 354. 


“3 


letter 1 


L. 


zabouchere, Henry, 479. 

Lacy, Drury, 435. 

Lafayette, Marquis de, Adams’ address on, 
 226n. 

‘Lands, Public, cession, 391; chairman of 
Senate Committee on, 745; frauds, 745; 
Indians, 279, 280, 290, 291; proceeds of 
sale of, 117, 742, 742n. 

Lansdowne, Marquis of, 461. 

_Larwill, Joseph H., 586, 586n, 587; hon- 


‘Lee, William, 769, 769n. 
Lee, Henry, 434, 444; plot against Henry, 
433, 434; letter, 433; letter to, 433. 
Leigh, Benjamin Watkins, 422, 425, 557, 
733; attitude on Bank question, 659; 
_ yisit to Clay, 743. 
_ Leiper, George G., 119, 289. 
‘Letcher, Robert, visit to Clay, 743, 744. 
‘Lewis, Morgan, 13, 28, 32, 44, 45, 605; Van 
- Buren supports, 15. 
‘Lewis, William B., 232, 325, 325n, 340, 369, 
371, 372, 373, 376, 387, 388, 389, 403, 
405, 406, 579, 580, 581, 586, 588, 592, 
616; letters, 243n, 370, 583, 586, 591; 
letters to, 370, 582, 590. 
“Tittle Band” (Burrites), 109. 
‘Little Prince, Indian chief, 280. 
Livingston, Hdward, 181, 508, 565, 614, 
688, 701, 702, 704, 705, 705n; appointed 
Minister to France, 229, 251, 258, 259; 
declines French Mission, 259, 260, 260n; 
_ forebodings of Jackson’s administration, 
_ 229, 261; French Mission, 593, 595, 598, 
705, 705n; defaleation charges against, 
_ 705; drafts Nullification Proclamation, 
705, 705n, 706, 707; Jackson’s opinion 
of, 704, 705; letter, 260n; opinion of 
_ Jackson, 229; opposes Bank charter veto 
and removal of deposits, 603 ;, opposes 
Jackson on the Bank, 705; relations with 
Webster, 715; report to Webster, 705, 
Secretary of State, 705; Van Buren’s 
_ friendship for, 704. 
Livingston, Edward P., 32, 38. 
jivingston, Harry, 27. 
jivingston, Peter R., 50, 
Livingston, Robert, land patents, 22, 23. 
Livingston, Robert R., 44, 50, 259; letter 
to, 189. 
Livingston Manor, patent suit, 22, 23, 24; 
town meetings, 25. 
yd, James, 209, 210. 
Loans, curtailment by U. S. Bank, 652, 
653, 654, 656. 
London Times (The), opposition to Aboli- 
_ tionist efforts in U. S., 492. 


706; resentment against Clay, 705, 706; |; 


INDEX. 


795 


Louis Napoleon, 585. 

Louisiana, and slavery, 136. 

Lowndes, William J., 122, 300, 301, 411, 
41in, 412. 

Lowrie, Walter, 235, 235, 239, 242; char- 
acter, 238, 239; controversy with Mon- 
roe, 236, 237; elected Secretary of the 
Senate, 238, 239. 

Lucas, Robert, 591. 

Ludlow, Thomas W., 773. 

Lyon, Matthew, imprisoned under 
Alien and Sedition law, 439, 440. 


the 


M. 


McArthur, Duncan, 181. 

Macauley, Thomas Babington, Lord, 464, 
468, 469: 

McDuffie, George, 394, 416, 560, 5607; an- 
tagonism to Jackson, 713; cooperation 
with Clay, 717; Jackson’s desire to 
arrest, 544; supports Bank, 713. 

MctIntyre, Archibald, 99; letter, 95, 95n; 
letters to, 95n. 

McKean, Samuel, 763, 766. 

McKenzie, William L., 536, 538; Lives 
and opinions of B. F. Butler and Jesse 
Hoyt, etc., 536n, 538. 

McLane, Louis, 146, 149, 149n, 150, 151, 
211, 273, 422, 482, 502, 503, 508, 510, 
511, 575, 575n, 580, 598, 599, 600, 602, 
606, 609, 612, 613, 614; accepts BEng- 
lish mission, 258; aided by Van Buren, 
577, 578, 605, 609, 610, 615; appointed 
president of banking company, 617; ap- 
proves of Duane as Secretary of Treas- 
ury, 597, 601; belief in failure of Jack- 
son’s administration, 230, 579; chance 
of appointment on Supreme Court, 577, 
578; character, 577, 579, 590, 592; con- 
firmed as Secretary of Treasury, 531, 
532; continuance in office, 609, 611; 
conversation with Jackson on cabinet 
changes, 596, 597; course on protest of 
French draft, 612; desires Supreme 
Court appointment, 583, 584; differences 
of opinion with Van Buren, 605; dis- 
appointment at not being in Jackson’s 
eabinet, 230; disposition to meddle in 
the Bank controversy, 601; duplicity in 
obtaining appointment of Duane, 594, 
596; first annual report as Secretary of 
Treasury, 581, 600, 601; friend attacks 
Van Buren, 569; friendship for Van 
Buren, 581, 601; hostility to Van Buren, 
569, 570, 571, 572, 573, 581, 582, 583, 
584, 588, 589, 590, 592; instructions to, 
521, 526, 529, 530, 531n, 595; Ir- 
ving’s feeling towards, 610, 611; Jack- 
son’s message to, 582; Jackson’s opinion 
on resignation, 608; letters, 230, 530n, 
548, 548n, 571, 575, 579, 596, 600, 601, 
602; letters to, 572, 578; mission to 
England, 257, 274, 523, 531, 583, 614; 
offered Attorney Generalship, 257; on 
aid to destitute Americans abroad, 546; 


796 


opposes veto of bank charter and re- 
moval of deposits, 603, 604; partiality 
for Bank, 593, 600, 601, 602, 605, 616, 
617 ; personal relations with Van Buren, 
573, 574, 575, 576, 577, 578, 579, 593, 
611, 613, 614, 615, 616, 617; political 
practices, 614; presidential aspirations, 
583, 588, 615, 616, 617; recommends re- 
charter of U. S. Bank, 531; on removal 
of deposits, 602; requests explanation 
from Van Buren, 572; resignation, 605, 
608, 609, 610, 612, 618, 614, 615, G1T; 
Secretary of State, 593, 598; Secretary 
of Treasury, 598; self interest, 614, 616, 
617; successful negotiation with Great 
Britain, 274, 523, 531; suggests Van 
Buren’s declining Secretary of State ap- 
pointment, 230; suggestion as to his 
instructions, 530; threat to retire from 
public life, 594; visits Van Buren, 570. 

MeLeod, Alexander, case, 466, 466n. 

MecNairys, the, 755. 

Macomb, Alexander, 349, 349n. 

Macon, Nathaniel, 129, 129, 200, 211, 221, 
236, 241, 242, 368, 655, 667; intercedes 
with Jackson to change removal of depos- 
its plan, 607. 

Madison, James, 28, 36, 37, 40, 41, 42, 43, 


INDEX, 


47, 57, 63, 117, 119, 121, 122, 124, 126, 
139, 192, 193, 319, 328, 411, 412, 418, 
421, 449, 471, 494, 681 ; defeated for U.S. 
Senator, 432; on internal improyements, 
330, 331, 334; letters, 330, 331, 334 ; let- 
ters to, 190, 190n, 330; principle of pat- 
ronage, 123; Randolph’s hostility, 208; 
report on Alien and Sedition laws, 302; 
repugnance to slavery, 133; tactics in 
securing first amendments to U. 8. Con- 
stitution, 4687; veto of Bonus bill, 299, 
300, 330, 331, 334. 

“Magician, The’’ (Van Buren), 2267. 

Maison Rouge Tract, bill, 128, 129, 130. 

Mallary, Rollin C., 169, 170n. 

Mangum, Willie P., 677. 

Manufacturers, annual petition to Congress, 
169; craving for tariff benefits, 559. 

Manufactures, Hamilton’s report on, 297. 

Marbury vs. Madison, 291. 

March, Charles W., 681, 689, 702, 703, 704, 
706, 707, 708 ; Reminiscences of Congress, 
700, 700n ; Van Buren’s opinion of, 701; 
Van Buren’s opinion of his book, 708, 
709. 

Marcy, William L., 101, 163, 165, 169, 503, 
504, 562, 595, 598; letter to, 509. 

Maritime rights, 60, 60n. 

Marshall, John, 175, 178, 219, 259, 434, 
753; appointment to Supreme Court, 
179; citation to State of Georgia, 290; 
decisions favor U. S. Bank, 126, 183; 
decisions undermine Constitution to 
favor U. S. Bank, 126; elected to Con- 
gress, 179; extra-judicial opinions, 291; 
Jefferson’s dislike of his decisions, 183; 


| Milnes, Monckton, 483. 


| Missionaries, to Indians, 284, 285. 


| Monarchy, strength of idea in Europe, 484, : 


quoits with Tazewell, and others, 259; 
report on Henry, 433. 
Maryland State Bank, failure, 737. 


Mason, George, repugnance to slavery, 133, 

Masons, Anti, excitement, 220. 

Massachusetts, Jackson in, 689, 690; and 
the protective tariff, 693: resolutions of 
legislature, 732, 733. ro 

Mayo, See b) eet (2, 

Maysville, Washington Paris & Lociuciaa 
Turnpike Company, bill, 311, 320, 321; 

_ Constitution on, 327, 328; Pennsylvania 
Congressmen favor, 325; veto of, 172, 
172n, 323, 324, 825, 326, 327, 328, 329, 
330, 335, 337. 

Meigs, William M., Life of Calhoun, 300n, a 
576n, , 

Melbourne, Lord, 528; administration, 465. 

Memorials, counter distredly 124, 120, (272 
“ distress,” 721, 122, 723, 724, 725, 727, 
736, 739, 740, 748; Van Buren’s opinion 
on discretion of President of Senate in 
presenting, 774, 775, 776. 

Mercer, Charles Fenton, 575, 575n. 

Mercer, Charles Francis, 177. 

Merchants, financial situation of, 652, 656. 

Middle States, free of passion for official dis- 
tinction, 259. 

Middleton, Henry, 419, 419v. 

Miller, Stephen D., 454, 4547. 

Militia, officers, election, 107. 


Minister to England, Van Buren’s appoint- 
ment to, 225. 


Missionary, Georgia, imposture, 626. 
Mississippi. 
in, 277. 
Missouri, admission as a slave state, 137, 

138, 140; and slavery, 136, 137: 
Missouri Question, 135, 187, 138, 139, 684; 
Van Buren’s attitude, 99, 100. — ‘ 


f 


Indians claim self government 


485 ; 
485. 
Money, Government’s power to raise, 304. 
Money Power, the, 449; attempts to prej- 
udice England against Jackson, 450; 
opposes Jackson, 449. 
Monopolies, odium of in public mind, 658. 
Monroe, James, 56, 567, 57, 75, T6n, 80, 94, 
115, 116, 122, 123, 126, 128, 140, 177, 
181, 192, 198, 233, 238, 277, 279, 300, 
304, 306, 307, 308, 319, 412, 418, 429, 
433, 495, 595, 769; cabinet deliberations 
on Jackson and the Seminole War, 366, 
368, 369, 370, 371, 373, 374, 375, 376n, 
380, 387, 388; character, 119, 121; com- 
mittee to investigate charges ‘against 
Hamilton, 119; course with Lowrie, 236, 
237; election to Presidency, 122; fusion 
policy, 197; Indian message to Congress, 
277, 278; Indian power at close of ad- 
ministration, 276; the Jackson letter, 
233, 234, 235, 236, 237, 238, 239; Jack- 
son’s private letter to, 383; letters to, 
58n, 198, 198n, 233, 234, 235, 383, 432, 
432n; message, 802, 302n, 306, 308; 
political policy, 234; position on internal 
improvements, 301, 302, 3038, 304, 305. 


struggle with democracy perpetual, 


_ 306, 307, 308; principle of patronage, 
_ 124, 125, 126, 127; Randolph’s hostility, 
_ 208; in the Reynolds affair, 119, 120, 
_ 121; successor to, 116; Van Buren’s last 
_yisit to, 153; Van Buren’s opinion of, 
- 121; veto of Cumberland Road bill, 117, 
Esls. : 
Moore, Gabriel, 454, 454n, 676. 
Moore, John: L., 103n. 
Ml wees Dts 28: 
Morgan, John J., 536. - 
Morgan, William, abduction, 220. 
Morning Chronicle, The, 109. 
orris Caval & Banking Company. 6177. 
Morris, Thomas, 676. 
Mount Vernon, Van Buren’s visit to, 177. 
N. 
Napier, Lord, 495, 497. 
Napoleon I, 484; distrust of Talleyrand, 
_ 459. See also Louis Napoleon. 
‘National Advocate (The), 101, 138. 
National Gazette and Literary Register, 
199, 199n. 
National Intelligencer (The), 359, 366, 416, 
417, 525, 526, 690. 
National Republicans. See Republicans. 
Naudain, Arnold, 677. : 
Navigation Acts, a political deai for pro- 
longing slave trade, 135. 
elson, John, 575, 575n. 
Newburgh Telegraph (The), 759.’ 
New England, character, Van Buren on. 
710; Jackson’s visit, 689, 690; liking for 
. Official distinction, 258; senators attack 
_ Yan Buren, 524; senators delay denun- 
ciation of West India trade negotiation 
suecess, 523; senators vote for resump- 
_ tion of West India trade and denounce 
' it when accomplished by Van Buren, 522; 
tariff, 116. 
New Hampshire, legislature, 
a convention, 584. 
New Jersey plan, for amendment to the 
Constitution, 118. 
New Orleans, battle of, feeling of English 
_ toward. 451. 
New York auctioneer officers, 223; Cham- 
_ ber of Commerce, 263; cholera in, 510: 
_ Collector of Customs, 262, 263, 505, 536: 
- Constitution, adopted, 112, 112m. 
Constitutional Convention, 102, 102n. 
105, 110, 111, 112; committee on ap- 
pointments, 106, 106”; Van Buren’s 
course in, 112. : 
Contested election, 73 ; Democratic citi- 
zens, letter to Van Buren and the 
reply, 503, 503n; election, 73, 158; elec- 
tion (of 1814), 53; (of 1820), 102; 
electors fayor Crawford, 142; Federalist 
onduct in, 49, 50, 51, 52, 56, 59: Gov- 
ernorship, Van Buren, 220, 225, 227, 
ot | 
Legislature : 550, 552; struggle to con- 
trol, 80, 86;-support of administration, 
729, 730, 731. 


recommends 


investigation of Van Ness bribery, 110, 


- INDEX, 


_Assembly : attitude in War of 1812, 44; | 


797 


110n; Senate: 
224. 

Loan to U. S., 44; Middle district Con- 
vention, 88n; militia bill, 55, 56, 57, 58; 
Politics, 142, 145, 147, 157; protective 
tariff, 169, 170, 693, 696; Republican 
struggle with Federalists, $1, 82, 90; 
Safety fund system attacked, 741, 742; 
supports John Quincy Adams, 142, 145: 
Supports War of 1812, 57; tariff con- 
vention, 169, 170; Union meeting on 
Nullification Proclamation, 547: U. S. 
district attorney for southern district, 
265. 

New York ys. John Jacob Astor, 175. 

New York American (The), 109; charges 
against Van Ness, 110. 

New York Courier and Enquirer (The), 
398. 

New York Evening Post (The), comments 
on New York legislature's report on 
Nullification proclamation, 552. 

New York Journal of Commerce 
421. 

Newspapers. See Press, The. 

Nicholas, Wilson Cary, 412, 412n. 

Nicholson, John, 258, 536. 

Niles’ Register, 282, 526, 526n, 654, 691, 
694, 696. 

Noah, M. M., 398; letter to, 101, 10in, 138. 

Nobility, English, simplicity of, 473, 474. 

North Carolina. “See Carolina, North. 

North Eastern boundary question, 273, 452. 
465. 

Northern Whig, newspaper, 26n. 

Northwest Territory, Ordinance of 1787, 
134, 135. 

Noyes, John, 76n. 

Nullification, 382, 395, 396, 409, 410, 562. 
679, 680, 681, 682, 684, 685, 691, 692, 
696, 697, 698, 758: Cahoun committed 
to, 541: crisis, 554; doctrine, 542: 
Hayne’s proclamation, 681: Jackson’s 
toast at dinner, 415, 416: launched at 
Jefferson birthday banquet, 413, 414, 
415; meeting at Albany, 562, 563, 564: 
meeting at Boston, 547; meeting at New 
York, 547; meeting at Shocco Springs, 
562; Proclamation: 543, 680, 684, 694, 
695, €98, 706, 707; defects, 546, 547, 
548; denounced, 424, 425; federal ten- 
dencies in, 706, T07; Livingston’s draft, 
705, 705n; newspaper comment on, 552, 
553; political capital made out of, 547. 
553; Van Buren’s report on for New 
York legislature, 550, 552; South Caro- 
lina’s ordinance of, 542, 680, 683; toasts 
at banquet, 415, 416, 417. 

Nullifiers, 696, 697, 


Van Buren’s election to, 


(The), 


oO. 


Oakley, Thomas J., 33, 94n, 166n, 401. 

O'Connell, Daniel. 476. 

Office seekers, importunity of, 231. 

Officers, Revolutionary War, half pay, 211, 
212. 


798 


Official distinction, a New England feel- 
ing, 258. 

Ogden, David B., 21, 50, 127, 173, 401. 

Ohio, circuit judge in, 219 ; protective tariff, 
693, 696. 

O’Neale, Peggy. 
Henry. 

Ontario County, N. Y., contested election, 
73; senator from, 86, 87. 

Ordinance of 1787, 134, 135. 

Oswego, N. Y., branch of Erie canal to, 85. 

Otis, Harrison Grey, 429, 547, 574, 575n, 
695. 

Otranto, Duke of, 445. 

Otsego county, N. Y., 105; senator from, 86. 

Overton, John, 587, 587n, 588, 589, 591. 

Owen, George W., 181. 


See Haton, Mrs. John 


P. 


Pageot, » 085. 

Parliamentary reform, 453. 

Palmerston, Lord, 456, 457, 458, 460, 477, 
528,.529; attack on administration (in 
1855), 467, 468; on Van Buren’s rejec- 
tion by Senate, 455; opinion of Talley- 
rand, 458; Van Buren’s negotiation with, 
452, 453; Van Buren’s opinion of, 465, 
466, 467. 

Panama Mission, 198, 199, 200, 200n, 201, 
202, 202n, 204, 248; abandoned, 201; de- 
feated, 203; vote on, 201n. 

Panic, distress committees, 727; distress 
memorials, 721,-722, 723, 724, 725, 726, 
727; efforts to cause, 717, 718, 719, 738, 
739, 740, 741, 742, 745, 746, 747, 748; 
engineered by Bank, 640, 641, 642, 651, 
651n, 654, 655, 656, 657, 696, 712, 717, 
722, 723, 725, 726, 736; plan of action 
in Congress, 712, 713; responsibility 
charged for, 722. 

Panic session, 618, 632, 633, 664, 671, 688, 
407, 712, 713, 721, 122, (23, 724, 725, 
726, 727, 735, 736, 742, 757, 782; how 
named, 618. 

Paris, Maritime congress at, 60n. 

Parker, Richard Hlliott, 606. 

Parris, Daniel, 44, 44n. 

Parties, political, 125. 

Parton, James M., Life of Jackson, 313n, 
749, 749n. 

Patronage, political, 106, 123, 124, 125, 
126, 127, 223, 399, 401; under Jackson, 
247, 249, 250; Van Buren on, 448. 

Patterson, Walter, 574. 

Paulding, J. K., 536, 

Paulding, William, 161, 163. 

Pea Patch Island, Delaware River, 576, 
576n. 

Peel, Sir Robert, 456, 529; Van Buren’s 
opinion of, 464; sketch of, 464, 465. 

Pendleton, Edmund, 187. 

Pennsylvania, aid in electing Jackson, 314, 
320; Duane’s appointment a compliment 
to, 596; on internal improvements, 314; 
the “Keystone State,” 314; mem- 


INDEX, 


bers of Congress fail to support Jackson | 


on Indian bill, 289; members of Con- 
gress in favor of Maysville turnpike bill, 
325; on removal of Indians, 314, 320; 
Secretary of Treasury from, 596, 597: 
senators, York memorial submitted to, 
765; support of Jackson, 239, 314, 320; 
tariff, 239, 314, 691, 696; western dis- 
trict marshal appointment, 127, 234, 235. 

Pensacola, Florida, Jackson’s occupation o 
375. 

Pension agency, 649. 

Pension funds, control of, 649n, 

Perkins, Thomas H., 547, 547n. 

Perkins, , 695. 

Peters, Richard, 292, 293. 

Peyton, Baylie, 196. 

Philadelphia, Board of Trade, memorial, 
722, 724, 725; building mechanics, memo- 
rial, 727; State banks’ memorial to re 
store deposits, 721, 724, 725. 

Pickering, Timothy, 179, 188, 188n, 299, 
486, 488; letter to, 488; removed as Sec- 
retary of State, 190; Review of corre- 
spondence of John Adams and William 
Cunningham, 188n. 

Pierce, Franklin, 496. 

Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth, 190. 

Pinckney, Thomas, 171. 

Piracy, slave trade declared, 135; 
Buren on, 118. 

Pitt, William, 468, 469. 

Pittsburg, Webster’s speech at, 691, 
693, 695, 696, 697, 698, 700, 703. 
Platt, , Judge, 64, 64n, 102. 
Poindexter, George, 454, 454n, 677, 681n, 
759; altercation with Forsyth, 757; 
antegonism to Jackson, 745, 755, 756; 
antagonism to Van Buren, 756, 757; at- 
tack on Webster, 681, 686, 686n, 687, 
758; attacks York memorial, 766; “brag” 
game with Clay, 754, 755; bribery charge 
against, 777; calumnies against Van 
Buren, 757, 776; chairman of committee 
on public lands, 745; character, 756, 758; : 
course in Senate in aid of Bank, t 
731: efforts to cause panic, 745; efforts 
to embroil Van Buren, 758, 759, 760, 761, 
762; letter, 759; letter to, 761; meeting 
with Jackson, 754, 755; personal 


~1 


ion of, 755, 756, 

Politics, campaign (of 1840), 8; delegated 
power abused, 184; difference betwee 
state and nel 401; ore, national, 


partisan, 712; partisan prejudice, 746; 
parties growing out of War of 1812, 671: 


469, 470; rivalry within organiza 
519n; Van Buren on, 124,, 125. 
Polk, James K., 226n, 614. 
Porter, David, 269. ; 
Porter, Peter B., 70, 71, 72, 81, 82, 145, 
282, 283, 295, 537, 537m. 


Oftce, inquiry into, 745. 

e, William Pitt, 273; appointed U. 

er to the Netherlands, 260, cas 
‘gast, John I., 76n. 
Samuel, 454, 454n, 533, 676. 
r of the United States, 742, 742n; 

ppointing power, 742; canvass (of 
1824), 665; election by House of Repre- 
sentatives, 118: evils to which an admin- 
istration is exposed by the Secretary of 
State desiring succession to the, 398: 
Jackson’s plan to resign in favor of Van 
en, 506, 507: loss of power at close 
of an administration, 284; maneuvers 
for, 616, 617; prejudice against England 
capitalized to gain, 494, 495, 496, 497, 


ay? 


ping stone to, 122; successor to Jackson, 
9518; Van Buren’s chances of, 446, 447; 
Van Buren’s idea of the honor, 448; Van 
' Buren’s nominations, 225, 226, 227; 
‘White’s nomination, 226n. 

ident, packet, 445, 459. 

ress (The), (mewspapers), aids Bank and 
opposes Jackson, 746; auxiliary of parti- 
San pclitical advantage, 290; controlled 
by Bank, 658; freedom endangered by 
Jackson’s political appointments, 247; 
power of, 197; panic rumors, 747, 748; 
-Ytumors Bank stock transactions in Lon- 
don, 746. 

Preston, William C., 677, 766; attack on 
Ryan Buren, 766, 767, 768, 772; personal 
ations with Van Buren, 769, 770; rea- 
‘sonable atonement for his attack, 769. 

on family, characteristics, 769. 

stly, Joseph, 159, 159n. 

ateers (N. Y.), bill to encourage, 57, 


Pres 


a, 485. 

blic debt, payment of, 621. 

ie opinion, control of by Bank funds, 
; Power in England, 481, 483. 
unctuality, Jefferson on, 188. 


Q. 


Quakers. See Friends. 


64 


R. 


Say, Robert, 326, 326n, 327. 
ndall, Henry S., 442. ‘ 

dall, Ae af (5 

ndolph, Edmund, 189. 

olph, Elien Wayles, 183n. 

olph, John, of Roanoke, 12, 125, 181, 
238, 326, 435, 554, 594, 695; ap- 
ed minister to Russia, 260, 260n, 
8, 419; approves Jackson’s Bank veto, 
; assails Adams, 439; assails Holmes, 
, 206, 209; attempts to sow discord 
yeen Van Buren and Jackson, 420; 
acter, 205, 426, 427, 428, 429, 430, 
; charges against Jackson, 547; 


INDEX. 


498, 499, 500; removal power, 742; step- | 


————————_— LL SA ees Se eensreneressrsneweneernes 


799 


Charlotte resolutions, 424, 425; on com- 
mittee of rules of Senate, 208; death, 
426; debate with Henry, 435, 436, 437, 
438, 439, 440; demands letters from 
Jackson, 425, 426; denounces the Nulli- 
fication Proclamation, 424, 425, 547; duel 
with Clay, 204, 207, 534; entertaining 
qualities, 208; fails in reelection, 207, 
208 ; hostility to Jefferson, Madison, and 
Monroe, 208 ; letter, 423n; leaves Russia, 
420, 421, 427, 428, 429; leaves Senate, 
210, 429, 430; opinion of Washington 
City, 208; personal relations with Van 
Buren, 421, 423, 426, 427, 429, 430, 431; 
physical appearance, 205, 207; political 
services, 121, 428, 429; presents a horse 
to Van Buren, 421, 422; protest, 121; 
quarrels, 418; speech against Alien and 
Sedition law, 439, 440; speeches, 425; 
Van Buren’s reasons for appointing, 418, 
419; on Van Buren’s resignation, 423n: 
violence in debate, 204, 205, 206. 

Randolph, Mrs. Thomas Mann, 349, 580. 

Redfield, Herman J., 158. 

Reform, political, 247, 248. 

Reform Bill (English), 460, 461, 462, 463. 
477, 478, 482. 

Reid, . 436. 

Religion, 284; in polities, 293. 

Reminiscences of Congress (March’s), 700, 
700n. 

Renssalaerswyck, ship, 11n. 

Republican creed, 124. 

Republican party, 192, 195, 196, 197, 198, 
303; advocate of State theory of adop- 
tion of Constitution, 545; danger of de- 
struction, 665; foreign policy, 494; in- 
trigues for Presidency, 398. 

Republican (The Washington), 576n. 

Republicans, 220; desire appointment of 
Van Buren, 224; factional split, 226n; 
National, 108; New York, Clintonians 
and Van Buren’s anti-federalist address, 
8Sn; split with Clintonians, 89; Vir- 
ginia, 208. 

Reyision, Council of (New York), 57, 102, 
102n, 

Reynolds, James, 119. 

Reynold’s Affair, 119, 120. 

Rice, John H., 435, 437. 

Richardson, , Judge, 38. 

Richmond, Duke of, 451, 461. 

Richmond Enquirer (The), 126. 

Riker, Richard, 38, 39, 41, 43. 

Rip Raps, Hampton Roads, Virginia, Jack- 
son at, 60in, 605, 607, 608. 


Ritchie, Thomas, 245, 246, 248, 249, 255, 
425, 514: letters, 245, 385; letters to, 
249, 514. - 


Rives, William Cabell, 273, 612, 676; ap- 
pointed Minister to Great Britain, 260; 
success in negotiation with France, 274. 

Rhea, John, 383, 

Rhinelander, , 106n. 

Roads, Buffalo to New Orleans, 311, 


800 INDEX, 


Roads and canals, 194, 298, 299, 300, 301, 
315, 329; reports on, 314. 


Roane, Spencer, 390, 770; articles on Mar- 
shall’s decisions, 126; support of Jack- 


son, 723; Van Buren’s visit to, 126. 
Roane, William H., 390. 
Robbins, Asher, 454, 454n, 671. 
Robbins, Jonathan, 179. 
Robinson, John M., 676. 


Rochester, William B., 164; nomination for 


governor, 162, 163, 


Romaine, , 104n. 

Root, Erastus, 44, 47, 56, 95, 110. 
Rose, William Lucius, 41, 43. 
Rosencrantz, George, 89n. 

Ross, F. William, 89n. 

Ross, James, 691. 

Ross, William, 43, 43n, 86, 103n. 
Ruffin, Thomas, 606. 


Ruggles, Benjamin, 454, 454n; Van Buren’s 


opinion of, 566, 566n, 567. 

Rush, Richard, 521. 

Russell, Benjamin, 209, 209n. 

Russell, Lord John, Van Buren’s opinion 
of, 477, 478. 

Russia, 485; appointment of minister to, 


418, 419; Great Britain’s war with, 467; 


treaty with, 419, 420. 
Rutgers, Aeache 
Rutledge, Henry M., 419, 419n. 


Ss 


Safety Fund System, N. Y., 221, 222; at- 
tacked, 741, 742. 

Sailor’s Snug Harbor, suit, 172, 175. 

St. Marks, Florida, Jackson's occupation 
of, 375. 

St. Paul, 4687. 

Sanford, Nathan, 67, 68, 69, 70, 218, 2131, 
263, 263n, 515, 563; candidate for U. 8. 
Senate, 66, 67, 67n, 104, 104n. 

Sardinia, 79 485. : 

Sargeant, — , 82 

Schuyler, eae 22 

Scotch character, 496. 

Scott, Winfield, 56, 353; nomination vote, 
500. 

Seamen, destitute, aid for, 546. 

Search, right of, on high seas, 2083; Great 
Britain’s claim, 528, 529. 

Sedgwick, uae tsk 

Sefton, Lord and Lady, 473 

Seminole War, Jackson’s conduct in, 383, 
388, 754, 755; Jackson’s correspondence 
with Calhoun on, 366, 368, 394. 

Senate, U. S., action on rechdrter of U. S 
Bank, 618; aid to panic, 747, 748; see 
also under Calhoun, Clay, Poindexter and 
Webster; attack on Van Buren in, 764, 
771, 772, 773, 774; Bank majority in, 
714; bitterness of debate in, 748; breach 
with President on Panama mission, 201 ; 
choosing of standing committees, 671, 


are 


debate on panic memorials, 722, 723, 724, 
739, 740; debate prolonged in, 716; 


| Slave Trade, abolition of, 135, 203; 


| Smith, Mrs. Samuel Harrison, 753. 


| South, free from passion for official 


| Southard, Samuel L., 303, 303m, 369, 677. 
673, 674, 675, 676, 677, 711, 713, 759; | 


finance committee, 715, 716; Jackso! 
support in, 728, 724; motives inducil 
rejection of Van Buren’s nominatii 
531; President of, 673; President 
tem, 673, 674, 675 ; President’s discreti: 
in presenting memorials, 774, 775, 776 
rejection of Simpson’s nomination, ea 
rejection of Van Buren’s nomination 
minister to Great Britain, 273, 395, 396, 
458, 454, 455, 456, 457, 509, 511, 51 / 
513, 531, 584, 585, 587, 590, 591, 748, 
756, 757; resolution changing method of 
committee selection, 675, 676, 677; rules, 
amendments, 208, 209, 210; standing 
committees intrigue against Van Bure O 
671; suspected of intentional disrespect 
by Jackson, 599, 600; treatment of new 
Senaters, 217; Van Buren’s first appear- 
ance as Vice President in, 671, 672; Va 
Buren’s opponents in, 673, 763; Wan 
Buren’s reception in on his cote tom 


595; York memorial in, 766, 767, 
770, 771, 772, 773, 774, 775, 776. 
Senators, U. S., New York, 100, 100n, 104, 
104n, 

Sergeant, John, 291, 612. 

Seward, William H., 549, 549n. 

Seymour, Henry, 91. 

Seymour, Horatio, 91, 129, 454, 454n. 

Shakers, petition exemption from milita: 
service, 153, 154. 4 

Shenandoak County, Virginia, memoria 
766. . 

Shepley, Ether, 676; supports Jackson, 
724, x 

Shocco Springs, North Carolina, meeting, 
562. 

Silsbee, Nathaniel, 2138, 21380, 677, 733, 

Silvester, Cornelius, 14. . 

Silvester, Francis, 13n. 

Silvester Family, 13. 

Simpson, Stephen, nomination rejected 
Senate, 599. 

Singleton, — , 394. 

Skinner, Roger, 103, 103n, 106, 144. 

Slave States, 136. 


clared piracy, 135. 

Slavery, 136, 137, 138, 139; agitation, 411 
412; Slave and Free States represen’ 
tion in Congress, 135; Van Buren ¢ 
132, 138, 134, 135. 

Smith, Nathan, 677. 

Smith, Samuel, 201m, 213, 213n, 613; 
dicacy for Vice President, 588. 


Smith, William, 198; offered seat on U. 
Supreme Bench, 199. 


tinction, 258; injuries inflicted on, 411 
South America. See America, South. 
South Carolina. See Carolina, South. 


Southwick, Solomon, 19, 48, 96, 125, 220 
401." 
Spain, U. S. Minister to, 252, 253, 260. 


a Spanish claims, payment of, 662. 


Specie, curtailment, 653, 654, 656. 
Spencer, Ambrose, 38, 41, 42, 43, 47, 64, 
66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 71n, 72, 73, 75, 
76n, 79, 80, 88, 89, 89n, 90, 91, 102, 111, 
170, 224, 401, 548; attempt to restore 
Clinton, 74, 75, 76, 76n, 77, 79, 80, 85; 
interview with Van Buren, 92, 93; op- 
posed to Van Buren, 67, 68, 69, 70; po- 
litical intrigue, 86, 91, 92; political lead- 
ership, 74, 79. 
Spencer, John C., 100, 100n. 
Spencer, Earl. See Altrop, Lord. 
Spotswood, Mrs., 441. 
Sprague, Peleg, 677; attacks Van Buren, 
524, 
State Department, no secrets can be kept 
in, 270. 
State Secretary of, (New York), 69, 70: 
State, Secretary of (United States), 230; 
appointed, 224, 225, 310, 517, 598, 614; 
Clay’s nomination, 666; Jackson’s wish 
for Van Buren’s return to, 705n; labor 
of, 273; Livingston as, 705; McLane ap- 
pointed, 598 ; offered to Henry, 433, 434; 
stepping stone to Presidency, 121, 122, 
398; Van Buren appointed, 224, 225, 
517; Van Buren’s resignation, 268, 398, 
“399, 402, 403, 404, 405, 406, 407, 423n ; 
Van Buren selection for, 267. ° 
States, plan of districting, 118; proceeds 
of sale of public lands distributed among, 
742, 742n; rights, 416, 424, 425, 546, 
547; rights as to roads and canals, 317, 
318, 319. 
Stebbins, Francis, 267. 
_ Steuben county, N. Y., election result, 164. 
_ Stevenson, Andrew, 146, 237, 237n, 364, 
528, 528n, 575, 575n, 589. 
Stocks, American, rumors of lack of Euro- 
pean confidence in, 747. 
Stone, William L., 85. 
Stranahan, Farrand, 67, 68, 69, Tin. 
Strong, 5 (ale 
Strother’s Hotel, Washington, D. C., 574. 
Sublime Porte, treaty with, 257, 270, 756. 
Suffrage (Votes), restriction in N. Y., 112. 
Sullivan, George, 272. 
_ Supreme Court, New York, increase of, 683 
Van Buren offered a place on, 90, 91. 
Supreme Court of U. S., assumption of 
_ authority, 184; elective, 185; justices, 
110; justices and the circuit, 218, 219; 
undermines Constitution to support U. 8, 
Bank, 126; used for political partisan 
purpose, 292, 293; Van Buren offered a 
_ place on, 140, 141. 
Survey bill, 328, 329. 
Sussex, Duke of, 456, 459. 
Suydam, John, difficulty with Van Buren, 
27, 28. 
Swart, Moak, 80. 
Swartwout, Samuel, 377, 381; appointment 
as Collector of New York, 262, 263, 266, 
268, 272. 505; opposition to, 264, 268. 
Swift, Benjamin, 677. 


127483°—vor 2—20——51 


INDEX. 


801 
T. 


Taghkanie (Tackkanic) patent, 22, 

Talcott, Samuel A., 21; appointed attorney 
general, of N. Y., 174; intemperance, 
174, 175, 176; relations with Van Buren, 
173, 174, 176; talent, 175, 176. 

Talleyrand, Charles Maurice Perigord, 
Prince, 457, 460, 473; attacked, 459; 
defended by Wellington, 459; distrust of 
Napoleon, 459; inability to speak Eng- 
lish,, 458, 460; Palmerston’s opinion of, 
458. 

Tallmadge, James, 1438. 

Tallmadge, Nathaniel P., 549, 677, 741. 

Tammany Society, 265; dinner, 233. 

Taney, Roger B., 364, 511, 579, 580, 597, 
598, €05, 601n, 605, 613, 657; appointed’ 
Secretary of Treasury, 603; appointed to 
Supreme Court, 584; charge against, 644, 
738 ; defended by Forsyth, 738; prophecy 
of result of Cass and McLane remaining 
in Cabinet, 608; refutation of Clay’s 
charge, 739; report on Bank, 643, 643n, 
644; report on remoyal of the deposits, 
652, 653, 654, 655, 656; Van Buren ap- 
proves for Secretary of Treasury, 593. 

Tariff, 200, 541, 559; (of 1824), Jackson’s 
position, 239, 240, 242; opposition to, 
240, 242; Van Buren’s vote on, 241, 242; 
(of 1882), act, 542, 542n; Clay’s 
“American System,” 554, 555, 556; modi- 
fication, 554, 555, 557, 558, 562, 563, 
564; protective, 115, 116, 117, 169, 172, 
409, 411, 412, 555, 671, 682, 683, 691, 
693, 693n, 694, 696. 

Abuses, 275 ; bill, 1702; character, 171; 
opposition, 240, 242; reduction, 553; re- 
port on amount of duties, 740, 741; sys- 
tem, 409, 555, 682, 683; Van Buren’s 
opinion of as a political issue, 555; Web- 
ster on, 698, 699; Webster’s speech sus- 
taining, 683, 684, 

“Tarquin,” 351. 

Tayloe, Benjamin Ogle, 612. 

Taylor, Creed, 436. 

Taylor, John, 40, 41, 43, 46, 47, 228, 412; 
death, 227; relations with Van Buren, 
227, 228. 

Taylor, John W., 181, 158; Speaker of the 
House of Representatives, 157. 

Taylor, Zachary, 196. 

Tazewell, Lyttleton W., 209, 210, 210n, 
256, 258, 259, 454, 454n, 756; appoint- 
mment as minister to England, 251; de- 
clines, 256; quoits with Marshall and 
others, 259. 

Telegraph (The), 357, 358. 

Tennessee, U. S. Attorney, appointment left 
to Van Buren, 265. 

Thomas, , 48, 49, 96. 

Thompson, Smith, 19n, 74, 75, 77, 81, 88, 
96, 138, 140, 141, 141n, 173; appointed 
Secretary of the Navy, 94, 140, 140; 
defeated for Governor of New York, 220, 
221; Presidential aspirations, 141n. 


802 INDEX. 


Thompson, William, nominated for speaker, 
90. 

Throop, Hnos Thompson, 88,.562, 595, 598. 

Timberleke, J. B., 341. 

Tipton, John, 677. 

Tomlinson, Gideon, 454, 454n, 677. 

Tompkins, Daniel D., 28, 29, 46, 48, 49, 53, 
69, 70, 75, 76, T6n, 79, 98, 100, 106, 110, 
122, 138; accounts, 95, 97, 99, 99n; 
charges against, 95, 97, 98; intemper- 
ance, 96, 97 ; joint letter with Van Buren, 
125, 126; letter, 952; letter to, 95n; 
nominated for governor, $9n, 105, 225; 
reply to charges, 98; resignation, 76n ; 
Secretary of State position offered to, 57, 
95; Van Buren’s pamphlet in favor of, 
101. 

* Townsend, J., 170. 

Townsend, , 1032. 

Towson, , 308. 

Trade, with Indians, 280. 

Treasury, U. S., besiegers cf, 745. — 

Treasury, Secretary of, 593, 594, 597, 737; 
appointed, 593, 594, 596, 597, 598, 603, 
605, 614; called on for and reports on 
amount of duties, 740, 741; censured for 
remoying deposits, 717, 717m, 7263 
charges against, 737, 738; dismissed, 603, 
603n; Jackson’s difficulty in finding a, 
595; power to remove deposits, 714; 
reasons for removal of deposits, 731; re- 
port on Bank, 643; report on removal of 
deposits, 715, 716, 717. 

Treaty, obligations disregarded by nations, 
485; with Russia, 419, 420. 

Trimble, William A., 307, 3077. 

“Trio,” 416. 

Trist, Nicholas P., 345, 349, 441, 580. 

Trist, Mrs. Nicholas P., 349. 

Troup, George McIntosh, 415, 416; toast, 
416. 

Tucker, Henry St. George, 300, 300n, 412. 

Tyler, Jehn, 124, 208, 454, 454n, 671, 677, 
756; opposition to removal of deposits 
and to the Bank, 766, 766n; vote against 
the Force Bill, 710n. 


U. 


Union, sustaining of, 416. 

Union Bank of Maryland, 644; Secretary 
of Treasury charged with being a stock- 
holder in, 737, 738, 739. 

United States, accession of territory, 136; 
advantage derived from War of 1812, 
490, 491; alliance with England, 485, 
486, 488, 491, 492, 493, 494; allows time 
limit of West India trade regulations to 
elapse, 521; attitude in West India trade 
negotiation, 522; authorizes resumption 
of West India trade, 522, 522n; disre- 
gard of treaty obligation, 485; domestic 
wrangles over foreign situation, 487, 
489; interdicts West India trade, 522; 
New York loan to, 44; refused West 
India trade privileges, 522 ; remonstrance 


with West Indies, 522, 522n, 527; sys- — 
tem of government compared with Eng- — 
lish, 480, 481, 482, 483; treatment re- 
ceived from England, 486, 487, 488; 
treatment received from France, 487, 488. 

United States Telegraph (The), 378, 380, 
384, 398, 399, 506, 512, 514, 520, 532, 
533; Article in, 386. 

University, National, 195. 

University of Virginia, president, 159. 


Vv. 


Vail, Aaron, 445. 

Van Alen, Johannes, 107, 

Van Buren, Abraham, 10. 

Van Buren, Catalynje Martense, 107. 

Van Buren, Cornelis Maessen, 10. 

Van Buren, John, 109, 196, 402, 445, 576. 

Van Buren, Marten, 10, 107. 

Van Buren, Martin (grandfather), 10 10n. 

Van Buren, Martin, abandons chance of i 
presidency, 446, 447; absence felt by — 
Jackson, 508; absence from Senate on — 
Woolens bill vote, 169 ; absence from Sen- 
ate as Vice President, 673; abused by 
wealthy, 56; acquires Van Ness estate at 
Kinderhook, 17; action on Clay’s nom- 
ination as Secretary of State, 667; action — 
to arouse opposition to Swartwout’s ap- 
pointment, 263; address on death of Clin- — 
ton, 166, 166n, 167; address to people on — 
nomination of Tompkins and Taylor, 47, 
47n; address to Senate in York memorial 
debate, 774, 775, 776; administration, 
392: on admission of Missouri, 138, 140; 
admitted to bar, 13; advice on Jackson’s” 
message, 546; advice on handling nulli- 
fication proclamation in New York legis- 
lature, 549; advised to decline appoint- 
ment as Secretary of State, 230, 231; 
Albany resolutions, 50, 51, 52, 52m; on 
alliance with England, 485, 486, 488, 493; 
aids McLane, 609, 610, 615; analysis b 


tion, 162; analysis of working of the 
public mind, 168; answer of N. Y. Senate 
to governor’s speech, 53, 55”; appoint- 
ment as attorney general of N. Y¥., Tin, 
96, 224; appointed Minister to England, 
225; appointed Secretary of State, 224 
517; appointed U. S. Senator, 99, 2 
on appointments, 107; arrival at W: 
ington as Vice President, 677; article ¢ 
Chancelior Kent, 61, 62; attacked 
Cherokee policy, 293; attacked by Cl 
and Calhoun, 675; attacked by Clay, 
759; attacked by McLane’s friend, 569; 
attacked in Senate, 748, 758, 759, 76 
764, 765, 767, 768, 770, 771, see a 
confirmation as Minister to England ; 
tacked by Webster and Sprague, 52 
attacked on West India trade instructio 
523, 527; attacks on, 169, 764, 765, 768, 


INDEX. 803 


769; attempt to injure, 539; attends 
N. Y. tariff convention, 170. 

Attitude: toward Bank, 36, 44; on the 
Bank of the U. S., 184, 184n; on a Bank 
debate in Senate, 724; on bankrupt law, 
214, 218; on Hrie canal, 84, 84n, 85; to- 
ward Federalists, 88; on protest of 
Wrench draft, 612; in Jackson-Calhoun 
quarrel, 376; on Missouri Question, 99, 
100; on political patronage appointments, 
399, 401; on slavery, 136, 137, 138; to- 
ward War of 1812, 36, 37, 44, 48. 

Belief in Biddle’s personal honesty, 651 ; 
belief that party feeling should not influ- 
ence foreign policy, 512; belief in the peo- 
ple, 8, 9, 19, 34, 112, 509, 678, 772; Bell’s 
interview with, 226n; besieged by of- 
fice seekers, 231; break with Clinton, 
45, 46, 47, 48,. 101; break with 
Hogeboom, 47, 48; brief on Internal Im- 
provements, 319, 321; Cabinet dinner, 
348, 349, 350, 750; Cabinet reception, 
351, 352; call on J. Q. Adams, 269 ; candi- 
date for attormey general of N. Y., 38, 
42, 68, 69, 70, 71; candidate for State 
Senate, 29, 30, 31, 32; candidate for U. 8. 
Senator, 104, 104n; candidate for Vice 
President, 584, 585, 586, 587, 588, 589, 
590, 591 ; carries pistols, 761, 762; charge 
of non-committalism against, 196, 197, 
198, 1987; charged with aspiring to 
Presidency, 398, 399; charged with pur- 
chase of gold spoons for the White House, 
769, 770; charged with authorship of 
Maysville yeto message, 329; charges 
against, 25, 366, 367, 368, 380, 381, 384, 
885, 386, 387, 389, 397; character sketch 
of John Randolph of Roanoke, 426, 427, 
428 429, 430, 431; Clay’s visit to, 534, 
664; commencement of his term as Presi- 
dent of the Senate, 673, 674; compares 
U. S. and English governmental systems, 
480, 481, 482, 483, 492, 493; conduct 
as presiding officer of the Senate, 708; 
confirmation as Minister to England re- 
fused by Senate, 273, 395, 396, 453, 454, 
455, 456, 457, 509, 511, 512, 513, 531, 
539, 540, 584, 585, 587, 590, 591, 748, 
756, 757 ; ‘‘ Considerations in favor of ap- 
pointment of Rufus King’’ (pamphlet), 
139n; considers resigning as Secretary 
of State, 262, 266, 267; on Constitution’s 
implied powers, 297, 298; controversy 
with Chancellor Kent, 58, 60; conver- 
sation with ‘Aaron Burr, 400; coopera- 
tion with Calhoun to elect Jackson, 514; 
county convention delegate, 13, 14; 
course on Internal Improvements, 315, 
316; course in N. Y. Constitutional Con- 
vention, 112; course in Presidential elec- 
tion in House of Representatives, 149, 
150; on Cumberland Road veto, 117; de- 
feated for renomination for President, 8, 
226, 227, 394; 513; defended, 539, 540; 
defends administration’s action resulting 
in his rejection as Minister to England, 
5102; defends removal of deposits, 602; 


defends Van Ness, 110, 111; on Delaware 
county circuit, 93, 94; delegate to N. Y. 
Constitutional Convention, 106; on 
democracy’s struggle with monarchy, 485 ; 
denounced for success in West India trade 
negotiation, 522, 524; deserted by 
Holmes, 756; describes debate in House 
of Lords on Reform Bill, 460, 461; de- 
scribes Jefferson dinner at which nullifica- 
tion was launched, 414, 415, 416, 417; 
difference of opinion with McLane, 605; 
difficulty with Suydam, 27, 28 ; diplomatic 
activities, 452, 453; discourages succes- 
sion to Presidency, 398; discusses Web- 
ster’s dealings with the Bank, 778, 779, 
780, 781, 782; dissension with Jackson 
attempted by McLane, 569, 571; on 
Duane’s selection as Secretary of the 
Treasury, 598, 600; early politics, 15, 28, 
29, 30, 31, 32, 33; efforts to abolish im- 
prisonment for debt, 212; efforts to ad- 
just nullification difficulty, 541; effort to 
deal justly in autobiography, 367 ; efforts 
to induce Clay to run as Vice President 
with Crawford, 665; efforts to reconcile 
Jackson and J. Q. Adams, 270, 271; an 
effort to trap, 772; elected Governor of 
N. Y., 220, 221; elected President of 
U. S., 225n, 510; elected Vice President, 
510, 618; elected to N. Y. Senate, 33, 73, 
224, 225; election bets, 149; on election 
of President in House of Representatives, 
118; escorted to Capitol by Jackson on 
his return from England, 566; estimate 
of N. Y. political situation, 160, 161; 
faith in Jackson’s friendship, 700; faith 
in the people, 8, 9, 19, 34, 112, 509, 678, 
772; false reports about, 127; feeling re- 
garding Federal tendencies in Jackson’s 
cabinet, 545, 546; first political office, 
28; first vote, 13, 15; friendship for Mc- 
Lane, 601; friendship for Livingston, 
704; Governor of N. Y., 221, 225; guber- 
natorial canvass, 19; on Hamilton’s im- 
plied powers of Constitution and internal 
improvements, 297, 298; handwriting, 
321; in Holland, 9, 10; horse presented 
to, 421, 422 shostility of McLane, 571, 572, 
573; idea of political power, 447; idea of 
the Presidency, 447, 448 ; instructions for 
West India trade negotiations, 520, 521, 
523, 524, 526, 529, 530, 531n; on im- 
plied powers of Constitution, 297, 298; 
on Internal Improvements, 117, 297, 298, 
815, 316; on politics of the Internal Im- 
provements question, 309; intrigue 
against as President of Senate, 672; in- 
vitation to Calhoun to dinner, 749, 750; 
Jackson’s opinion of, 12; Jackson’s plan 
to elect as Vice President and resign the 
Presidency in favor of, 506; Jackson’s 
remark to about the Bank, 625; Jackson’s 
wish for him to return to office of Secre- 
tary of State, 705n; Dr. Jones’ visit to, 
751, 752; joint letter with Tompkins, 
126; King of England’s feeling on his re- 
jection by the Senate, 455, 456, 457; 


804 


labor on instructions to U. S. ministers, 
272, 273; last visit to Monroe, 153; in 
law offices, 13, 14; learns of McLane’s 
resignation, 612; legal practice, 21, 26, 
27; length of office as Governor of N. Ye, 
221; letters, 15n, 25, 138, 245, 249, 261, 
821, 330, 361, 361n, 394n, 407n, 509, 517, 
546, 558, 563, 572, 578, 580, 582, 598, 
605, 606, 611, 669, 761; letter on Mis- 
souri Question, 1007; letter to Noah, 101, 
101n; letters to, 15n, 109n, 185, 186, 
186n, 197, 198n, 245, 248, 263, 264, 321, 
322, 330, 331, 334, 346, 354, 385, 387, 
394n, 407n, 423, 502, 503, 503n, 507, 
507n, 5087, 514, 516, 518, 530n, 548, 
548n, 571, 575, 579, 583, 586, 595, 596, 
600, 601, 603, 604, 607, 610, 611, 614, 
615, 668, 705, 705n, 759; “Life of Van 
Buren” by McKenzie, 536n; Livingston 
land patent case, 22, 23, 24, 26; loss of 
state votes, 225” ; McLane’s visit to, 570; 
the “‘ Magician,” 226n, 447; meeting with 
Clay, 557, 558; meeting with Jackson, 
232; meeting with Jackson and Grundy, 
671, 672; meeting with Webster, 567; on 
his “ Memoirs,” 34, 35; message to N. Y. 
legislature, 221; method adopted to re 
move diplomatic corps’ wrong impression 
of Jackson, 261, 262; militia bill (N. 
Y.), 56, 57; Minister to England, 404, 
405, 539, 540; misrepresented on re- 
moyal of deposits, 602; mistake as to 
Clinton, 96; mistakes in nullification 
proclamation, 548, 549; mother and 
father, 10; negatives plan of Jackson’s 
resigning the Presidency in his favor, 506, 
507 ; on the New England character, 710; 
on New Jersey plan, 118; in New York 
Constitutional Convention, 106; New 
York Senate committee to answer Gover- 
nor’s speech, 41, 53; first and last nom- 
ination for office, 29; nominated for goy- 
ernor of New York, 225; nominated for 
President, 225, 226; nomination as Min- 
ister to England rejected by the Senate, 
273, 325, 395, 396, 453, 454, 455, 456, 
457, 502, 508, 509, 511, 512, 513, 531, 
584, 585, 587, 590, 591, 748, 756, 757; 
nomination rejected because of Maysville 
veto, 325; nominee for Vice President, 
503, 508, 509; on nullification crisis, 558, 
559, 562, 562n, 563, 564; objections to 
Swartwout, 264, 268; offered seat on N. 
Y. Supreme Court, 90, 91; offered seat on 
U. S. Supreme Court, 140, 141, 141n; 
offices held by, 7, 33. 

Opinions: of J. Q. Adams, 192; of 
Lord Althorp, 476, 477; of Broug- 
ham, 472, 473, 474, 475; of Camp 
breling, 655; on discretion as _ Presi- 
dent of Senate in presenting memorials, 
774, 775, 776; of Lord Derby, 475, 576; 
on duelling, 27; of English people, 463; 
of Lord Grey, 460, 461; of Hamilton, 
121; of Hayne, 216; of Joseph Hume, 
478, 479; of Ingham, 504, 505, 506; of 
Jackson, 245, 250; of R. M. Johnson, 381, 


INDEX, a 


382 ; on Livingston and Tazewell appoint- 


ments, 251; of March, 701; of March’s 


book, 708, 709; of Monroe, 121; on ob- 
ligation to class, 461; of Palmerston, 
465, 466, 467; on patronage, 106, 
223, 448; of Sir Robert Peel, 464; 
of Poindexter, 755, 761; on political 
patronage, 106, 223, 448; of Spencer 
Roane, 126; of qualities necessary for 
political leadership, 469, 470; of Lord 
Russell, 477, 478; of tariff as a political 
question, 555; of Webster, 561, 710; of 
Wellington, 462, 463; of Washington, 179. 

Opponents in Senate, 673, 674, 675, 
763; opportunity for knowing the truth 
about the Panic Session, 618; opposed to 
Adams’ administration, 192, 198, 199; 
opposed to Bank, 221, 222, 626; opposed 
to Clinton, 76, 76”, 77, 78, 93, 105; op- 
posed to coalition of Jackson with Web- 
ster, 678 ; opposed to N. Y. J udiciary bill, 
198 ; opposed to Monroe, 197 ; Opposed to 
Panama mission, 198, 200, 201; opposed 
to tariff, 171; opposed to vacating judi- 
ciary offices by N. Y. Constitutional Con- 
vention, 110, 111; opposition to, 505, 
517, 518, 519, 520, 526, 527, 531, 
532, 581, 582, 583, 584, 586, 588, 589, 
590, 592, 663, 756, 757, 768; pamphlet in 
favor of Tompkins, 101; part in Haton 
Affair, 340, 342, 343, 344, 345, 348, 350, 
351, 352, 355, 361; part in Webster’s at- 
tempt to regain control in Senate, 728; 
personal relations with Calhoun, 513, 514, 
515, 516, 534, 535, 749, 750, 753 ; personal 
relations with Clay, 534, 535, 568, 665, 
667, 668, 669, 670; personal relations 
with Jackson, 232, 233, 242, 243, 245, 
402, 403, 405, 506, 507; personal rela- 
tions with McLane, 573, 574, 575, 576, 
577, 578, 579, 611, 613, 614, 615, 616, 
617 ; personal relations with Preston, 769, 
770; personal relations with Poindexter, 
754, 757, 758, 759, 760, 761, 762; per- 
sonal relations with Randolph, 421, 422, 
423, 426, 427, 429, 430, 481: on piracy, 
118; plans political course, 448; pleads 
with Jackson for McLane, 605 ; Poindex- 
ter’s effort to quarrel with, 758, 759, 
760, 761, 762; political enemies, 15, 
16, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26; political labors, 
445; political principles, 112; political 
relations with Poindexter, 749, 158, 
759, 760, 761, 762; on politics, 124, 
125; portrayal of Jackson, 312; post- 
ponement of speech on his rejection, 
510; prepares N. Y. legislature’s re- 
port on Nullification proclamation, 550, 
558, 558; President of the Senate, 
618, 673, 674; Presidential chances, 508, 
584; prophecy as to Clay, 150; pro- 
poses amendment to Constitution, 315, 
316 ; proposes Jackson for President, 198 ; 
public offices unsolicited by, 224, 225; 
questioned on Nullification, 562; reason 


of his appointment as Secretary of State, _ 


267, 268; reasons for desiring appoint- 


— 


. 


ment of Randolph to Russia, 419, 427, 

428, 429; recalls Haton from Spain, 364; 

record as governor of N. Y., 221; received 

by the King and his minister, 448 ; recep- 
tion in House of Representatives on re- 
turn from Europe, 567, 568; reception 
in Senate, 566, 568; reelected to Senate, 

165; regard shown by Albany citizens 

for, 227; rejection by Senate vote, 454, 

'454n, 532, 583; rejection, 539, 540, 584, 

587, 590, 591 ; rejection fails to humiliate, 

457; relations with Berrien and Hayne, 

216; relations with Burr, 15; relations 

with Calhoun, 387, 389, 390, 391, 392, 

398, 394, 395; relations with Clinton, 

149, 164, 165; relations with Cooper, 

160; relations with the ‘ Highminded 

Federalists,’ 105; relations with Sir 

Robert Inglis, 482, 483; relations with 

_ Chancellor Kent, 62, 63; relations with 
- Rufus King, 100, 101m, 105, 108, 130, 131, 

- 132, 141, 147, 154, 155; relations with 
Talcott, 173, 174, 176; relations with 

Taylor, 227, 228; relations with Van 
Ness, 14, 15, 17, 18, 111; relations with 

_ Webster, 535, 536; relations with Wright, 

728; relations with Yates, 113, 114, 146; 

relinquishes all thought of the Presi- 

_ dency, 508; on removal of deposits, 602 ; 

removal from N. Y. attorney-general- 

ship, 88, 92, 98, 94, 225; renomination 
for Presidency, 393, 394; reply to Clay 
in York memorial debate, 772, 773; re- 

- quested to suggest a Secretary of the 

Treasury, 595; resignation as Governor 

of N. Y., 227n; resignation as Secretary 

of State, 262, 266, 267, 268, 350, 356, 

398, 399, 400, 402, 403, 404, 405, 406, 

407, 423n; resolutions in favor of Tomp- 

_kins nomination as Governor, 99n; re- 

sponsibility for political sharp practice, 

73; retaliates on Van Schaack, 16; re- 

view of bank controversy, 618, 619, 620, 

621, 622, 623, 624, 636, 637, 638, 639, 

640; reviews his political course, 446; 

_ teturn home from England, 502, 503, 508, 

+ 566; “Rising Sun” story, 199; school- 

_ ing, 10, 12; self-analysis, 8, 9, 11, 12, 33, 

_ 84, 447, 568, 573, 574; in Senate, 111, 
' 1138, 115, 128, 129, 396, 748, 749, 763; 
on Senate committees, 115; in Senate as 

_ Vice President, 671, 672; on Senate’s 
refusal to confirm him as Minister to 

'Bngland, 511; separation from Jackson 

attempted by Whigs, 549; share in Jack- 

son’s annual message, 445; on slavery 
and Southern States management of 

' slavery, 132, 133, 134, 135; social rela- 

' tions with Senate, 748, 749, 763. 

_ _ Speeches: on amendment of Constitu- 
_ tion, 316, 317; against Bank, 184, 184n; 
on bankruptcy bill, 215, 215n ; first in Sen- 

ate, 128, 129; on half pay to Revolution- 

ary officers, 211; on Judiciary Bill, 219, 

_ 219 ; on the Panama Mission, 202, 202n; 

on Tompkins’ claim, 99, 99n; on West 


INDEX. 


805 


India trade, 511, 512; on the Woolens 
bill, 170, 171, 172. 

Stay at Windsor Castle, 456, 457 ; study 
of Internal Improvements, 312; submits 
York memorial to Pennsylvania senators, 
765; success in State politics, 400, 401; 
successor to Jackson, 518; on suffrage re 
striction, 112; suggested as Governor of 
N. Y., 591 ; suggests abolishing N. Y. Coun- 
cil of Appointments, 106, 107; suggests 
terms of expression of Jackson’s attitude 
toward foreign countries to diplomats at 
reception, 262; suggests Duane as com- 
missioner under the French treaty, 600; 
suggests William B. Rochester as gover- 
nor of N. Y., 162; supports Clinton, 37, 
38, 40, 41, 42, 76, 76n, 77, 89, 93, 159; 
supports Crawford, 140; supports N. Y. 
loan to U. S., 44; on Supreme Court, 184, 
185; suspects Calhoun’s nullification 
scheme, 413, 414; sympathy of Hnglish 
on his rejection by Senate, 455, 456; 
talk with Wright, 729; tariff conversa- 
tion with Calhoun, 409; thwarts Web- 
ster, 672; title of “ Magician,” 226n, 447 ; 
toast at Nullification banquet, 416 ; train- 
ing, 11, 12, 13; triumph over Senate, 595 ; 
urged to become a Federalist, 14, 15; 
urged to become Vice - Presidential 
nominee, 503, 508, 509; views coincide 
with Jackson’s, 595. 

Visits: to Adams, 188; to and from 
Clay, 153; to Crawford, 367, 368; to Mrs. 
Eaton, 407, 408; to England (second), 
474, 475; to Holland, 9, 10; to Jefferson, 
182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188; to Mon- 
roe (last), 153; to Mount Vernon, 177; 
to Richmond, Va., 126; to Talleyrand, 
458; vote challenged, 144; vote on Cum- 
berland road, 315; vote on tariff, 241, 
242: voyage to England as U. S. Minis- 
ter, 445, 446 ; warns against superficiality, 
12; Webster’s actions towards, 776, 777; 
Webster’s attack on, 764, 765; Webster 
refrains from attacking, 675; Webster’s 
hostility, 524, 525, 535, 536; willingness 
to. accept Vice-Presidential nomination, 
509. 

Van Buren, Martin, jr., 9, 585. 

Van Buren, Pieter Martense, 10n, 

Van Buren Family, 9, 9n, 10, 10n; emi- 
igrate to America, 10; name, 10, 10n; 
record, 9n, 10. 

Van Courtlandt, , 47. 

Van Dyke, Nicholas, 201n, 

Van Ness, Cornelius Peter, appointed U. S. 
minister to Spain, 260, 260n. 

Van Ness, John P., 13, 16, 17, 18, 64, 419, 
419n; death, 18; elected to Congress, 14; 
monument to his father, 18; relations 
with Van Buren, 14, 15, 17, 18. 

Van Ness, Peter, 15, 16, 17, 18. 

Van Ness, William P., 14, 15, 29, 30, $1, 32, 
62, 109, 401; attempt to impeach, 109, 
110, 110n; death, 111; letter, 15”; let- 
ter to, 15n; relations with Van Buren, 


806 


111; second to Burr in duel with Hamil- 
ton, 16, 29; Van Buren’s defense of, 110, 
111. 

Van Ness, William W., 33, 90, 92, 401. 

Van Ness, 7 £02; : 

Van Ness Family, 13. 

Van Rensselaer, Jacob Rutsen, 24, 27, 70; 
charge against Van Buren, 25, 26. 

Van Rensselaer, Solomon, 89, 125. 

Van Rensselaer, Stephen, 47, 71, 91, 146, 
149, 149”, 158, 169n, 170, 171, 207, 514, 
574, 5752, 576 ; course in election of John 
Quincy Adams, 150, 151, 152; influences 
that made him yote for Adams, 152. 

Van Rensselaer property, 11n. 

Van Schaack, Peter, 13, 15, 21, 27; bio- 
graphical sketch of, 18, 19, 20; death, 
20; relations with Van Buren, 16, 18, 19; 
son, 15, 16. 

Van Schaack Family, 13. 

Van Vechten, Abraham, 21, 24, 71n, 401. 

Vanderpoel, Aaron, 547, 547n, 548, 

Vaughan, Sir Charles R., 256, 261, 351, 
457; knowledge of Jackson, 450. 

Venable, Abraham B., 119. 

Venison, 459. 

Verplanck, Gulian C., 544, 553. 

Verplanck, Johnston, 110; letter, 109n. 

Vice President, U. S., absents himself by 
custom at commencement of the session, 


673, 674, 759; as presiding officer of the. 


Senate, 673; candidates for, 584, 587, 
588, 589 ; election by House of Represent- 
atives, 118; Van Buren’s candidacy, 582, 
5838, 584, 587, 588, 589, 591; Van Bu- 
ren’s first appearance in Senate as, 671, 
672. 

Vienna, Congress, 467. 

Virginia, 424, 425, 431; Constitutional Con- 
vention, 4438; legislature, 733; producer 
of Presidents, 121; resolution denying 
power of Congress to establish a bank, 
733; resolutions, 319; used as stalking 
horse by nullifiers, 413, 414. 


Votes. See Suffrage. 
Ww. 
Wager, (Judge), 30, 31. 


Waggaman, George A., 566, 566n. 

Walsh, Robert, 199, 199n, 416, 416n. 

War, Secretary of, appointed, 300; Jack- 
son’s wish for Eaton’s return as, 705; 
resignation, 406, 407. See also Haton, 
John Henry. 

War of 1812, 60, 192, 493; advantage de- 
rived from, 490; Albany meeting on, 49, 
50; British demands, 59, 60; British 
depredations, 58; feeling of MHnglish 
toward, 451; military and naval vic- 
tories of, 490, 491; New York Federalist 
opposition to, 48, 44, 49; political reor- 
ganization growing out of, 671; Web- 
ster’s conduct in, 682, 685”. 

Warfield, Henry W., 575, 575n. 

Warner, Daniel, 52. 

Warrington, Lewis, 349, 349n. 


INDEX, 


Washington, Bushrod, 63, 177, 179, 219 
appointment to Supreme Court, 179. _ 
Washington, George, 123, 177, 190, 249 
433, 434, 435, 437, 471, 485, 486, 650 
695; death, 179, 180; impression oi 
Henry, 443, 444; Jackson’s vote against 
313, 419; Jefferson’s opinion of, 18° 
186; letter, 433; letter to, 433; repu: 
nance to slavery, 133; wishes Marshal 
and Bushrod Washington to run for Con 
gress, 178; Van Buren’s opinion of, 179 
Washington, D. C., burned by British, 53 
54, 58. 
Washington Journal (The), 351; attack 
Mrs. Jackson, 269. 
Washington Republican (The), 181. 
Wayne, James Moore, 415. 
Webster, Daniel, 21, 151, 175, 181, 219 
226n, 259, 300, 304, 364, 390, 425, 454 
520, 525, 529, 
631, 685, 652, 663, 663n, 676, 677, 683 
692, 700, 702, 704, 705, 706, 709, 718 
719, 734, 740, 741, 764, 767, 772, 773 
replied to by Clay, 556, 557; reply t 
Hayne, 680; reply to Wright, 730, 731 
seat im Jackson’s cabinet, 701, 706 
speech in defense of Bank, 779, 780 
speech on Force Bill, 681; speech o1 
French Spoliations, 271; speech agains 
Bank veto, 623, 624, 624n; advance 
_ toward Van Buren, 535, 536; alliance 
with Jackson, 707, 709, 711; antagonis 
toward Van Buren, 524, 525, 536, 764 
776, 777; attacked by Poindexter, 681 
685, 685, 758; Bank’s power over, 661 
bill to recharter Bank, 733; biography 
700, 700n; “Bob and Siuker” speech 
498, 499, 500; bribery charge against 
764, 766, 777, 778, 779, 780, 781, 782 
capitalizes prejudice against England t 
gain Presidency, 498, 499, 500; chair 
man of Finance Committee of Sena 
716; chance of Presidency, 711; ch 
of politics intended, 672; change of po 
tion on slavery, 500; character, 52 
526, 535, 536, 561, 776; Cincinna 
speech, 690, 691; Clay’s opinion of, 670 
claim of aid to Jackson analyzed by Va 
Buren, 709; claims credit, by inference 
for Nullification proclamation principles 
680, 689; commends Nullification proeli 
mation, 680, 688, 694, 707; conduct i 
Bank’s behalf, 723, 733, 763, 764, 76 
766 ; conduct contrasted with Clay’s, 
561; conduct on Nullification, 561, 
681, 682, 683, 684, 688, 691, 693, 
698, 699, 707; conduct in War of 1 
681, 685; conduct toward Van Bu 
539; credited with passing the Force 
Bill, 708; defeated for nomination fo 
Presidency, 500; defense of, 777, § 
779; deficient in physical and mora 
courage, 662; desire for Presidency, 497 
498, 499; effort to regain control 0 
Bank question in Senate, 728, 731, 73: 
733, 734, 736; Hngland’s knowledge 0 
his character, 499, 500; English press of 


_—! E 
__ the Marshfield speech, 500; excluded 
from leadership in Senate, 716; Faneuil 
Hall meeting, 680, 689, 695; fear of 
_ Clay, 682, 728, 734; financial dealings 
_ with Bank, 778, 779, 780, 781, 782; hope 
to obtain place in Jackson’s cabinet, 672 ; 
hostility to Clay, 679, 680, 684; infiu- 
enced by Curtis, 536, 537; influences 
Van Rensselaer, 152; intended alliance 
_ with Jackson, 688, 689, 690, 691, 697, 
4 698, 699, 700, 701 ; knowledge of intended 
publication of McKenzie’s book, 539 ; lack 
__ of infiuence in Senate, 710; leadership in 
Bank campaign, 661, 662, 663, 664; let- 
ter to, 528; Livingston’s report to, 705, 
706; manoeuvyer when Jackson visited 
New England, 689, 690, 691, 692, 693, 
702, 703; Marshfield speech, 498, 499, 
500; nomination yote, 500; Nullification 
proclamation an aid to, 680; opposition 
to Clay’s bill for pacification of South 
Carolina, 679, 680, 681, 682, 683, 684, 
685, 699; panic efforts, 741; part in 
Serate intrigue against Van Buren, 672; 
passion for official distinction, 258; per- 
sonal apprehensions, 680, 682, 683; per- 
sonal relations with Clay, 734, 735, 736; 
_ Philadelphia mechanics distress memo- 
rial, 727 ; Pittsburg speech, 691, 692, 693, 
694, 695, 696, 697, 698, 700, 703; politi- 
cal manoeuvers, 688, 693, 694; political 
relations with Clay, 681, 682, 683, 686, 
687, 688, 689, 694, 696, 698, 699, 700, 
705, 706, 715; political sense, 682, 694, 
698; position on South Carolina’s sub- 
mission, 557; prepared article on the 
West India trade, 525; presidential as- 
pirations, 663, 688; questioned by the 
Globe, 778, 779; recklessness in financial 
matters, 661; refrains from hostility 
toward Var Buren, 675; relations with 
Clay, 660, 662, 663, 670; relations with 
Livingston, 715; remarks on postponing 
Senate committee appointments, 676; on 
removal of deposits, 703; speech against 
York memorial, 766; speeches, 498, 499, 
500, 676, 680, 690, 691, 692, 693, 694, 
695, 696, 697, 698, 700, 703; on tariff, 
698; thwarted by Van Buren, 672; un- 
patriotic speech on French Spoliations, 
271; Van Buren’s meeting with, 567; 
Van Buren’s opinion of, 561, 710; visit to 
Biddle, 779; western tour, 690, 691, 693, 
701, 702, 703; willingness to cooperate 
with Jackson, 677, 678; Worcester 
_ speech, 680; Works, 708. 
eed, Thurlow, 537. 
Wellington, Duke of, attitude on Reform 
Bill, 463; defends Talleyrand, 459; ora- 
torical power, 463, 464; Van Buren's 
opinion of, 461, 462, 463, 464. 
Wells, Jchn, 21. 
essels, Derick, 10. 


INDEX. 


807 


West, excitement caused in by Poindexter’s 
charges of land frauds, 745, 746. 

West Indies, British trade regulations, 521; 
trade negotiations, 251, 256, 272, 274, 
511, 522, 523, 525; 526, 530; Jackson’s 
course in, 527, 528; McLane’s instruc- 
tions, 595; Van Buren’s instructions, 
520, 521, 528, 524, 526, 529, 530, 531n; 
U. S. resumption of trade, 522, 522n, 
Bait. 

Westmoreland, Earl of, 456. 

Whallon, , Van Buren’s letter to, 25. 

Wharton’s Digest of International Law, 
60n. 

Wheaton, Henry, 143. 

Whig Party, 735; attitude toward nullifica- 
tion, 553; convention (1852) votes, 500, 
5002; use of Nullification Proclamation 
to attempt a separation of Van Buren 
and Jackson, 549. 

Whigs, 124, 125; attempt to make political 
capital out of Nullification Proclamation, 
546; ‘“‘ Highminded Federalists ” become, 
108. 

White, Hugh Lawson, 226n, 382, 382n, 595, 
674, 674n, 675, 677; coalition with Cal- 
houn, 225n; deserts Jackson, 226n; ex- 
cused from yoting on committee appoint- 
ment resolution, 675; nomination for 
President, 2267; Presidential nominee, 
674; relations with Jackson, 674; speech 
against the Bank, 734. 

White House, French furniture, 769; gold 
spoons, 769, 770. 

Wickham, John, 259, 259n. 

Wilkin, John W., 45. 

Wilkins, Martin S., 97, 98. 

Wilkins, William, 544n, 591, 597, 677, 763, 
765, T€6, 767; desire for vice presidency, 
584, 589, 590; failure to withdraw in 
favor of Van Buren, 590; supports 
Jackson, 723. 

Williams, David R., 368; letter, 518; letter 
to, 517. 

Williams, Elisha, 13, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27, 50, 
62, 92, 104, 401; legal skill, 21, 22. 

Williams, Nathan, 82. 

Wilson, Henry, 314, 314n. 

Wirt, William, 291, 292, 293, 303, 435, 436, 
437, 438, 441; letter to, 441n. 

Wood, , “re. 

Woodbury, Levi, 201in, 255, 256, 258, 259, 
260, 598, 602, 606; disappointment at 
not being in Jackson’s Cabinet, 229; fore- 
bodings of Jackson’s administration, 229 ; 
letters to, 252n, 254; offered Spanish 
mission, 252, 253, 254. 

Woodworth, John, 67, 68, 69, 71, Tin, 82, 
90, 102, 548; candidacy for attorney gen- 
eral of N. Y., 68, 71. 

Woolens’ Bill, 169, 170. 

Worthington, Thomas, 297, 297n. 


Wright, Silas, jr., 161, 163, 172, 503, 595, 
614, 677, 741, 748, 761, 765; asked to 
present administration’s side of Bank 
controversy, 730; character, 728; faith 
in the people, 625; letter to, 563, 564; 
relations with Van Buren, 728; speech 
against the Bank, 733; speech in support 
of the administration, 730; support of 
Jackson, 723, 729, 730; Webster’s reply 
to, 730, 733. 

Wythe, George, 186. 


We 
Yates, Henry, jr., 39n. 
Yates, John Van Ness, 148. 
Yates, Joseph C., 64, 75, 80, 89n, 102, 112, 
113, 114, 145, 147, 147m, 148; message 


O 


ii rt 


ed 


«ae Sr er) 


Yazoo frauds, 429. 
York County, Pa., attacks Webster’s B 


Young, Samuel R., 57, 58, 60, 67, 69, 70, 


as governor, 148, é 
_mode of appointing ele S 
“gat; relations with Van Bur 
“115, 146; retirement, 148; 
113. 


course, 763, 777; charges bribery of V 
ster by Bank, 778; Democratic memo: 
763, 764, 766, 768, 769, 771, 777; eras 
in memorial from, 765, 766, 767, 
770, TL, PRS dy ee 
memorial sent to Van Buren, 763, 7 
supports the President, 763. 


100, 100n, 104n, 115, 145, 147n, 148. 


~OFELTEOLC 
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